Late returns and more complete tallying of votes by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office has resulted in early reported race outcomes made in the immediate aftermath of the November 8 election being changed in two specific instances. Those races were that for city council in Redlands and for city council in Victorville.
As of Friday last week, incumbent Redlands Councilman John James had a tenuous hold on second place among nine candidates vying for election/reelection to the council. James, with 12.24 percent of the vote counted up to that point, held a razor-thin advantage over the candidate then running in third place, Eddie Tejeda. But by early this week, provisional votes, damaged ballot votes and late-arriving mail-in votes boosted
Tejeda’s vote count to 5,432 or 12.34 percent, while James’ percentage slipped to 12.06 percent, or 5,304 votes. It thus appears Tejeda will succeed James on the council next month. The other incumbent in the race, Patrica Gilbreath, cruised to an easy victory with 7,956 votes or 18.08 percent.
In Victorville, where three positions on the council were up for the taking, incumbents Jim Cox and Gloria Garcia, with 13.75 percent and 16.2 percent of the vote respectively, gained reelection, but their council colleague, Ryan McEachron, was turned out of office in the ten-candidate race, in which he finished fifth with 12.82 percent. Last week, it appeared that planning commissioner Lionel Dew had captured McEachron’s post, at which point he had polled 13.75 percent for third place. By Tuesday, however, as more uncounted votes came in and were counted, Blanca Gomez increased her tally to 7,919 votes, or 13.92 percent. Dew’s vote total rose to 7,674 votes, but his percentage had dropped to 13.49 percent, as did his relative standing to Gomez. In the end, Garcia had 16.39 percent or 9,322 votes; Cox had 14.93 percent or 8,492 votes for first and second place.
There were two other cities in the county where late on Tuesday November 8 and very early on Wednesday November 9, candidates other than those who seem to be the winners were ahead.
In Fontana, incumbent councilwoman Lydia Salazar-Wibert appeared to be headed for a narrow victory, along with her incumbent colleague, Jesse Sandoval. But over the next few days, she was unable to hold off the surging of challenger Jesse Armendarez. By last Friday, Armendarez had pulled ahead. As of late this week, Armendarez had 14,239 votes or 18.53 percent to solidify his hold on second place and a berth on the council over Salazar-Wibert, who had collected 13,357 votes or 17.39 percent.
In Upland, on election night and for the two days thereafter, Sid Robinson was the apparent victor in the race for one position up for election on the city council. But on Friday, November 11, Janice Elliott leapfrogged him to take first in the race by seven votes, 6,077 ballots, or 27.4 percent, to 6,070 votes, or 27.37 percent. As of this week, Elliott had distanced herself from Robinson even further, and was ahead 7,163 votes, or 27.87 percent, to 6,997, or 27.22 percent.