Extra

Only about 30% of ballots were counted countywide on election night. An update was posted by the county Registrar of Voter on Friday. The Registrar’s Web site says the next update will be on Monday, which is Veteran’s Day. We’ll see if that happens, but there will certainly be more updates next week. 

In all races but rent board, candidates who were leading widened their lead. Hahn iincreased her lead for mayor. Babbitt is further behind for school board, with Berkeley Federation of Teachers endorsed candidates Jen Corn and Ana Vasudeo in the lead for the two seats on the board. Andy Kelley in third place for rent board outperformed second place Dominique Walker in this round. 

Mayor – Ranked Choice Voting 

Since Sophie Hahn has less than 50% of votes cast for mayor, and will certainly have less than 50% when all votes are counted, then second choice votes for two minor candidates and Kate Harrison will be counted to determine the winner under Berkeley’s Ranked Choice Voting system. 

In the ballots counted so far, 27.4% of Kate Harrison voters voted only for her. 36.4% favored Sophie Hahn as their second choice; and 35.8% favored Adena Ishii. As more ballots are counted not only could the first choice candidate change, but the second choice preference of Harrison voters could also change. 

With the ballots counted so far, after the ranked choice vote allocation is completed, Sophie Hahn wins with 10,889 votes (52.61%) to 9,808 votes (47.39%) for Adena Ishii. 

How Many Votes Have Been Counted? 

Countywide turnout is up from 24.8% to 34.8%. Probably about 37% of mayoral ballots have been counted so far if you assume that probably about 60,000 voted for someone for mayor this year. 58,375 votes were cast for mayoral candidates in 2000. I would guess at least that many, if not more voted for mayor this year, but we won’t know the total until all votes are counted. 

Berkeley Mayor 

Current count and change from previous count 

Hahn 8853 +1879 

Ishii 7779 +1658 

Harrison 5118 +1020 

Harrison second choice votes 

To Hahn 1913 

To Ishii 1882 

Measure BB pro-tenant rent control measure - only local measure where vote was close 

Yes 11,713 52.2% +2302 

No 10,714 47.8% +2261 

School board – Electing 2 School Directors 

Jen Corn 13,190 +2900 

Ana Vasudeo 10,635 +2235 

Laura Babbitt 9,486 +2030 

Rent Board - Electing 4 commissioners 

Xavier Johnson 10,938 +2232 

Dominique Walker 10,431 +2069 

Andy Kelley 10,405 +2246 

Alfred Twu. 9,448 +1992 

Carole Marasovic 8,840 +1888 

Avery Arbaugh. 8,054 + 1596 

The above are the only local Berkeley races, in this writer's opinion, where Election night winners might not be the winners when all votes are counted.