1:35 a.m. If any benighted souls are still with me, thanks. In the final stretch I know I didn’t maintain the usual standard of being consistent with the number of significant figures in percentages, but I hope readers will excuse that. Also, thanks for the many supportive comments that you posted this evening. We’re really determined to keep pushing ahead with an ever-better Berkeleyside. Later today, we’ll try to see if there’s deeper meaning to any of these votes. Good night.
1:30 a.m. So there you have it. All the city and school district measures passed. Incumbent City Councilmembers all held their seats (although Worthington faces an instant runoff that will not be filled with drama). The one incumbent on the school board, Karen Hemphill, won, and is joined by Leah Wilson and Josh Daniels. The six rent commissioners that led first thing in the evening kept their lead all night.
1:28 a.m. And the other measures:
Measure R
Yes 17,790 (64.2%)
No 9,916 (35.8%)
Measure S
Yes 22,455 (82.36%)
No 4,810 (17.64%)
Measure T
Yes 17,271 (64.4%)
No 9,550 (35.6%)
1:25 a.m. Now onto the BUSD measures.
Measure H (requires two-thirds vote):
Yes 22,875 (80.25%)
No 5,628 (19.75%)
Measure I (requires 55% vote)
Yes 21,403 (76.7%)
No 6,502 (23.3%)
1:24 a.m. In the rent board contest, the results are (my frying brain has to omit the percentages):
Jesse Townley 11,748
Pam Webster 10,839
Dave Blake 10,605
Lisa Stephens 10,253
Katherine Harr 10,207
Asa Dodsworth 10,024
Those six are elected. The other candidates are:
George Perezvelez 6,287
Tamar Larsen 5,921
Marcia Levenson 5,671
1:18 a.m. In District 8, the results are:
Gordon Wozniak 1,827 (60.52%)
Jacquelyn McCormick 617 (20.44%)
Stewart Jones 573 (18.98%)
By the way, you can take this as proof that yard signs mean nothing.
1:15 a.m. In District 4, the results are:
Jesse Arreguin 1,717 (53.37%)
Jim Novosel 1,036 (32.2%)
Berndt Rainer Wahl 336 (10.44%)
Eric Panzer 124 (3.85%)
1:10 a.m. In District 1, the results are as follows:
Linda Maio 2,589 (65.58%)
Jasper Kingeter 894 (22.64%)
Merrille Mitchell 317 (8.03%)
Anthony Di Donato 146 (3.7%)
1:06 a.m. Wow. I should have looked at District 7 first. Kriss Worthington and George Beier will have an instant runoff. Here are the results:
Kriss Worthington 1,301 (49.79%)
George Beier 930 (35.59%)
Ces Rosales 381 (14.58%)
We won’t know the official result until Friday at the earliest. Of course, despite the suggestions of tactical voting, it’s unlikely in the extreme that all of Rosales’ first-place votes would have placed Beier second. It could theoretically happen, but it’s not going to happen.
1:02 a.m. Here are the school board results:
Leah Wilson 14,354 (25.07%)
Josh Daniels 12,777 (22.32%)
Karen Hemphill 12,700 (22.18%)
Those three are elected to the school board. The other candidates were:
Julie Holcomb 8,614 (15.04%)
Priscilla Myrick 6,006 (10.49%)
Norma Harrison 2,611 (4.56%)
1:00 a.m. I was just about to give up, but we’re all of a sudden at 100% reporting. Stand by for complete results.
12:42 a.m. I wish I had something new to report, but I don’t. I’m using this thumb-twiddling time to catch up on those Guardian minute-by-minute reports I mentioned at the outset. Man U thrashed Bursapor 3-0 and Spurs beat Inter (!) 3-1. Thought you’d like to know (if you need explanations on what those teams are or what the competition is, it probably won’t matter to you).
12:20 a.m. I’ve neglected all evening to mention the tough race for city auditor. Ann-Marie Hogan, running unopposed, has 99% of the vote. I think I’ll call it for Hogan.
12:18 a.m. I haven’t mentioned the rent board candidates for three hours. Interestingly, the six who led on the scant number of vote-by-mail ballots are still leading with 55 of 99 precincts reporting: Townley, Webster, Blake, Harr, Stephens, Dodsworth.
12:15 a.m. Woo hoo! Now up to 55 of 99 precincts, so more than half have reported. Still Wilson, Daniels and Hemphill for school board. Jesse Arreguin in District 4 now has three of 12 precincts reporting, and he leads with 50.3%. District 1 has finally troubled the scorer: with three of 12 precincts reporting, incumbent Linda Maio looks comfortable with 67% of the vote.
12:10 a.m. I’m more surprised that Measure R looks like it will pass comfortably. The tally stands at 64% yes, with those 40 precincts. Are we seeing a real shift in Berkeley attitudes towards development? It will be interesting in the coming days to figure out why Measure R seems to have won with ease. I thought it was going to be a close race either way.
12:06 a.m. I’m no psephologist, but I suspect it’s safe to say that all the Berkeley measures have passed. Measure H requires a two-thirds majority to pass, but it’s over 77% with 40 of 99 precincts reporting. I can’t see that slumping dramatically. Measure I needs a 55% majority to pass, and it’s standing at 75%. Our comment strands have been filled with heated debate on the merits of both measures, but clearly Berkeley voters are highly motivated to do what they can to support Berkeley schools, even if it means higher taxes. Pretty rare in the country these days.
11:58 p.m. I’m now back in the more cosy surrounds of my house. We’re up to 40 of the 99 precincts, with very little change in the overall picture. Kriss Worthington is probably beginning to breathe more easily: he has 51.2% with half of the precincts in District 7 reporting. Gordon Wozniak, with seven of 13 precincts in, is cruising with 62.1% of the vote.
11:34 p.m. Ira Serkes asks through the comments about Measures S and T. S has nearly 83% of the vote, T has 62%. Barring dramatic geographic differences (see my 11:30 post), it seems like all of the local Berkeley measures will pass. I don’t have the Berkeley breakdowns on the state propositions, but in Alameda County as a whole, Prop 19 has 54.8% support.
11:30 p.m. If anyone who’s still reading knows how to parse precincts in Berkeley, I’m curious whether there’s any chance that the precincts remaining can swing issues like Measures H, I and R dramatically?
11:28 p.m. Measure R is still winning comfortably, with 64.5% of the votes. Measure H is now running at 77.7% support, I is at 73.9% support.
11:35 p.m. Now, 38 precincts reporting. Kriss Worthington has just squeaked past 50% (50.42%) with four of the 12 precincts in District 7. Gordon Wozniak still leading comfortably in District 8. Jesse Arreguin just over 50% in District 4, with two of 12 precincts reporting. Still no precincts reporting in District 1.
11:17 p.m. Don’t want to peak too soon. We’re still at 22 out of 99 precincts. But our nice hosts here at the Registrar of Voters are closing up at midnight. So I’ll resume by following web results like hoi polloi. No free cookies and pretzels any more.
11:08 p.m. Most of the precincts that have reported in Berkeley are in North Berkeley, which is not where the City Councilmember races are. So there’s not much to update there.
11:04 p.m. Now have 22 precincts. No change in the top three for school board, H and I are still over 70% each.
10:54 p.m. Measure R has 64.6% support with 18 precincts reporting.
10:52 p.m. With 18 of 99 precincts reporting, Measure H has 76.6% support, Measure I has 73.0% support.
10:51 p.m. Wozniak is leading in District 8 with 23% reported and 62.5% of the vote.
10:50 p.m. Quick look. Top three for school board are still Wilson, Daniels, Hemphill, with over 18% reported.
10:48 p.m. Hang on. Results are beginning to flow in a big way. 18 of 99 precincts now.
10:45 p.m. With one of 12 precincts in District 4, it’s Arreguin 49.5%, Novosel 35.0%, Wahl 11.4%. In District 7, it’s Worthington 47.0%, Beier 38.8% and Rosales 14.0%. Remember that if a candidates doesn’t get 50% plus one vote, it goes to ranked-choice voting. All the totals tonight are just the first-choice votes.
10:42 p.m. If you understand the fine detail, the three precincts in Berkeley that have reported are 214200, 214000 and 310600. Here’s the map, which seems to be working.
10:37 p.m. If you’re interested in the early (three precincts out of 99) results in Measures H and I, it’s yes 76.2% on H, yes 72.8% on I. Someone just asked me if I know which precincts have reported. I’ll try to find out.
10:33 p.m. Only one of the precincts in the City Council races has reported (1 of 12 in District 4). I’ll spare you the breathless update. More data to come.
10:30 p.m. OK. Results trickling in. Three precincts reporting. School board: Leah Wilson, 24.97%, Josh Daniels, 21.71%, Karen Hemphill, 21.24%, Julie Holcomb, 17.14%, Priscilla Myrick, 10.57%, Norma Harrison, 4%.
10:23 p.m. Our favorite photographer, Keoki Seu, comments below on the procedure for polling places: “The procedure for closing is that you have to tally up all of the ballots and you have a worksheet to ensure that you have every single ballot that you gave out. I worked with a group of people who had done this for years, and typically it took them an hour after closing to make this count. What then happens is that at least two people go to the registrar of votes (in oakland, I think) to return all of their supplies and vote counts.”
10:17 p.m. Ho hum. Registrar of Voters website is still down. Maybe our getting paper results hot off the press at this near-empty conference room will prove a huge competitive advantage.
10:05 p.m. As several commenters have said, the Registrar of Voters website is down. The official I spoke to said it might be because there’s a big update to come. We can live in hope.
9:45 p.m. Berkeley has 99 precincts. We’re at 0 precincts reporting. Our neighbor Oakland has 254 precincts and 29 have already reported. C’mon Berkeley.
9:27 p.m.
In case you can’t restrain your excitement, here’s the scene in the conference room on 12th Street. Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald is in the center foreground. He says that early precinct results should be flowing in the next half hour.
9:18 p.m. I don’t mean, by the way, to slight the race for Rent Stabilization Board Commissioners. There are nine candidates for six positions, so it doesn’t seem quite so compelling in a political horse race sense. As it happens, on the vote-by-mail results six candidates — Townley, Webster, Blake, Harr, Stephens, Dodsworth — are clustered between 14% and 11.2%. Perezvelez, Larsen and Levenson are in the seventh through ninth slots with between 8.2% and 7.5%.
9:07 p.m. Incidentally, my reference to the non-existent exit poll for District 7 earlier was a joke. Of course there are no exit polls for local elections (yet — just wait as Berkeleyside gathers steam in future years). I name-checked Nate Silver’s liveblogging at the Times, but the style I admire most is The Guardian’s minute-by-minute liveblogging of major soccer matches. Livebloggers need to amuse themselves as well as provide crucial information.
9:04 p.m. Supporters of various local measures may take heart from the vote-by-mail results so far. Measures H and I, the BUSD measures, both have more than 70% support in the mailed-in ballots. Measure R, which concerns the Downtown Area Plan, is supported by 65% of vote-by-mail voters. Measure S and T, both of which concern marijuana regulations and taxation in Berkeley, are both being supported, but by different margins: S has 83% approval so far, while T has 62%.
8:56 p.m. In the vote-by-mail results for school board, the tallies are Leah Wilson 6,239, Josh Daniels 5,403, Karen Hemphill 5,295, Julie Holcomb 4,293, Priscilla Myrick 2,629 and Norma Harrison 924.
8:50 p.m. If you’re a real election geek, maybe you care about the current vote-by-mail results in Berkeley. In District 7, it’s Worthington 356, Beier 305, Rosales 103 and a single write-in vote. In District 8, Wozniak 808, McCormick 313, Jones 168 and two write-ins. District 4 has Arreguin with 586, Novosel 437, Wahl 121, Panzer (who withdrew from the race) 49, and four write-ins. In District 1, it’s Maio 1,143, Kingeter 320, Mitchell 139, Di Donato 60 and two write-ins. None of this means anything.
8:44 p.m. KRON4, which is running on the screen here, projects that Barbara Boxer wins reelection as Senator. Strangely, no exit polls on District 7 race between Worthington, Beier and Rosale.
8:32 p.m. If you want a model of what liveblogging election results can be, have a look at Nate Silver’s effort at The New York Times. It makes for depressing reading (for me, at least) at the moment, except for the 2% chance that Republicans will take the Senate. You take hope where you can find it.
8:15 p.m. If you have images of election headquarters in mind, the conference room at 125 12th Street in Oakland, where the Registrar of Voters is camped for the evening is not exactly a hive of activity. There are four journalists here, three officials and two Alameda County sheriffs. Rather low key. I’ll be liveblogging the results as the come in, filling this post in reverse chronological order (so this paragraph will be at the bottom and the latest news will be at the top). Feel free to add to the comments below if the muse inspires you.
