San Joaquin County will have a new district attorney when January 2023 rolls around.
With 84 percent of the vote tabulated so far, challenger Ron Freitas has defeated two-term incumbent Tori Verber Salazar.
Freitas has 43,537 votes or 54.33 percent of those cast.
Verber Salazar has 36,597 votes or 45.67 percent.
With 16,602 unprocessed ballots remained to be counted Verber Salazar would still lose unless more than 12,000 ballots were in her favor.
Given there was only two candidates, Freitas avoided a runoff in the Nov. 8 election.
Assistant San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that 92,314 ballots have been tabulated in the county.
Another 16,602 unprocessed ballots remain including vote-by-mail ballots (VBM); provisional ballots; conditional voter registration provisional ballots; and unprocessed ballots that are damaged, need to be remade, or require further review.
“With a projected voter turnout of 28 percent, this is expected to be the lowest turnout in San Joaquin County history,” Hale said. “Much of that has to do with voter fatigue from the gubernatorial recall election and the nature of mid-term elections where participation is frequently lower than in general or presidential elections.”
Hale said only 6,731 people, or 1.75 percent of San Joaquin County’s registered voters, went to a polling place to vote. She said her office received 101,922 VBM ballots, including 59,468 or 58 percent on the week of the election.
In addition, Hale said approximately 30 percent of VBMs, or roughly 90,000 individual cards, required duplication because at least one barcode was printed blurry and did not scan properly. This required extra staff to duplicate the blurry ballots and tabulate them using a two-person authentication process which delayed the time the office could report updated election results.
Josh Harder and Tom Patti are squaring off Nov. 8 for the 9th Congressional District seat representing all of San Joaquin County with the exception of Lathrop and the rural areas south of Manteca and east and south of Tracy.
As of Tuesday, Harder — the incumbent 10th District Congressman who has moved to Tracy — had 31,851 votes or 38.2 percent of the overall total. Patti, the incumbent supervisor representing Manteca north of Yosemite Avenue as well as Lathrop and parts of Stockton, had 23,241 votes or 27.96 percent.
Almost 4 out of every vote cast for eight candidates went to Harder in the primary election.
Troy Brown was elected county superintendent of schools out polling Brain Michael Biedermann 48,969 to 27,949.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com