FORT BRAGG, CA., 11/5/24 – Turnout at Fort Bragg’s two voting precincts was among the highest of the century, election workers said Tuesday. While polls were crowded, there were no problems or illegal electioneering within 100 feet of the precincts.
Incumbent Lindy Peters leads all candidates in a five-way race for two seats on the Fort Bragg City Council in preliminary election night returns, with nearly 30% of votes counted.
Also on the ballot in Fort Bragg are two city tax measures, both of which appear to be passing.
In the wider Fort Bragg area, four candidates seek two seats on the Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board of Directors. The district, landlord to Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital, runs from Westport to Gualala.
And three candidates seek two seats for the Fort Bragg Unified School District, which runs from Westport to Fort Bragg.
Registrar reports high vote turnout
Fort Bragg’s two in-person voting precincts, at CV Starr Community Center and Fort Bragg Veterans Memorial Hall, reported bigger crowds than usual. One woman who has been an election worker for more than 20 years said the turnout looked like the biggest since the two presidential elections where President Barack Obama was at the top of the ballot. While busy, no problems had been reported at the precincts by 5 p.m.
Katrina Bartolomie, the elected head of the county’s election department, confirmed the large turnout and said that the county had to run more provisional ballots out to precincts.
Veterans Hall in Fort Bragg was one of the places that had to ask for more provisional ballot envelopes. One can vote in person if their ballot is lost or destroyed, or if they’re registered to vote by mail and choose to vote in-person instead, creating a need for provisional ballots. Bartolomie said the election night preliminary numbers would be counted as early as midnight or as late as 2 a.m. Wednesday.
She said more than 20,000 mail-in ballots had already been counted by Monday, with more than 52,000 registered voters in the county. Final votes will drag on because mail-in votes postmarked by election day will be accepted until Saturday.
City Council
According to results released by the county at 8:15 p.m, Peters is first with 530 votes, Noyo Harbor businessman Scott Hockett second with 373 votes, followed by equipment operator Ryan Bushnell with 285 votes, personal trainer Bethany Brewer with 272 votes, and Mel Salazar with 179 votes. All numbers are preliminary until the final count is certified on Dec. 3.
Fort Bragg has learned to wait for final results — two years ago, the election night returns were reversed when the final count was completed. The final tally gave incumbent Tess Albin-Smith a victory by three votes over Michelle Roberts.
For a city council seat that pays $610 a month, five of Fort Bragg’s citizens battled it out in an election campaign that featured more hugs than acrimony. At the League of Women Voters candidate forum, all the candidates pledged to support whoever won and gathered for a group photo afterward.
Councilmembers serve four-year terms, with elections every two years. In 2022, Jason Godeke, Marcia Rafanan and Albin-Smith were elected. Peters was elected to a two-year term in 2022, so his seat was back on the ballot this year, along with the seat now occupied by Mayor Bernie Norvell. Norvell was elected to represent District 4 on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and thus did not run for reelection to the council. That left two four-year seats up for election.
Health District
The Mendocino Coast Health Care District race has four candidates for two seats. Nurse Lynn Finley leads the race with 2,556 votes, followed by incumbent Paul Katzeff, co-founder of Thanksgiving Coffee, with 1,630 votes. Bringing up the rear are consultant Mikael Blaisdell with 887 votes and health care advocate Gabriel Maroney with 664 votes.
School District
In the Fort Bragg Unified School District, Sage Statham, CEO of the disability nonprofit Parents and Friends, faces two-term incumbent Kathy Babcock, and Cristal Munoz, the city’s administrative analyst who was appointed to an open seat on the school board earlier this year but stepped down to run for a full four-year term. In early voting, Babcock, with 1,567 votes, has nearly 46%, while Statham, with 996 votes, is slightly ahead of Munoz, with 859 votes.
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