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Election Night in Humboldt County was low on drama, and low on turnout, too. It is unclear how many ballots remain to be counted, as will likely be the case for another week, but the Elections Office counted 20,258 ballots in its final election night report. That’s 42 percent of the final tally from the primary four years earlier.

Even with scores of ballots remaining uncounted, no local races appear in doubt.

The Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative, known as Measure A, which sought to overhaul cannabis cultivation regulations countywide, was resoundingly rejected by 73 percent of voters. While proponents of the measure cast it as a way to protect small farms and add teeth to existing environmental and neighborhood protections, opponents, including much of the cannabis industry, argued it was bad policy and would have dire consequences for local farms.

Embattled Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Greg Kreis’ efforts to win a second term on the bench, meanwhile, seem to have fallen decidedly short, with challenger April Van Dyke leading the race with 60 percent of the votes cast thus far. Appointed in 2017, Kreis faces a bombshell ethics complaint filed against him by the Commission on Judicial Performance about a month before Election Day. He's denied the allegations.

On the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors’ front, incumbents ran away with the races early and didn’t look back. In the First District, three-term incumbent Rex Bohn has a commanding lead over challengers U.S. Coast Guard veteran Gordon Clatworthy and Fields Landing resident Jerry McGuire, having taken 64 percent of the vote, trailed by Clatworthy's 24 percent and McGuire's 12 percent.

In the Second District, incumbent Michelle Bushnell fended off challenges from Fortuna school board member Jeana McClendon and cannabis entrepreneur Brian D. Roberts, taking 58 percent of the vote to McClendon's 36 percent and Roberts' 6 percent.

Up in the Third District, meanwhile, incumbent Mike Wilson cruised to his third term, taking 81 percent of the vote to challenger and dispensary owner Roy Gomez Jr.’s 19 percent.

The race for the Second District state Assembly seat being vacated by the retiring Jim Wood, meanwhile, remains too close to call, with Arcata-based state Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks (18.9 percent) and Santa Rosa City Councilmember Chris Rogers (19.6 percent) vying to join Republican Crescent City school board member Michael Greer in a November runoff. Incumbent North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman, meanwhile, is cruising into his November runoff having taken 72.5 percent of the vote to Republican Chris Coulombe’s 17.4 percent.

There were, of course, also presidential races on the ballot, with Republican Donald Trump taking 1.1 million votes and incumbent Democrat Joe Biden notching 1.6 million votes statewide in their party primaries along percentages that tracked in Humboldt County.

Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes told KMUD on Election Night he believed the county was “looking at a pretty low voter turnout” compared to 2020. Cervantes said elections staff would continue to tabulate late-arriving vote by mail ballots (and those that arrive before March 12), those dropped off at the polls and provisional ballots cast on Election Day, an effort that will extend for weeks. Post-election reports will be issued weekly until official results are certified no later than April 4.

THIRD UPDATE:
The final Election Night report added more than 2,000 ballots to the ongoing tally, bringing the total counted so far to 20,258, but did not move the needle in any local race.

The county’s supervisorial incumbents all continue to hold comfortable leads, with Rex Bohn currently holding 64 percent of the vote in the First District, Michelle Bushnell leading with 58 percent of the vote in the second district and Mike Wilson running away with 81 percent in the Third District.

The race for a seat on the Humboldt Superior Court bench, meanwhile, has embattled incumbent Greg Kreis trailing challenger April Van Dyke with 40 percent to Van Dyke’s 60 percent.

Measure A, the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative, meanwhile is being rejected decisively, with 73 percent of ballots counted so far falling in the no column.

It’s official: Humboldt County will have a trio of contested supervisorial races on the March primary ballot, as well as a rare contested judgeship seat.

The Humboldt County Elections Office has confirmed candidates who qualified for local races, with the exception of those vying for Second District Assemblymember Jim Wood’s seat. Because Wood is declining to seek re-election, candidates have until the end of tomorrow to submit paperwork to qualify for the race.

With local election season now officially upon us, here’s a quick look at the races:

First District Supervisor
Joining three-term incumbent Rex Bohn in the race to represent the county’s First District are challengers Gordon Clatworthy, a 40-year-old U.S. Coast Guard veteran, and Gerald McGuire, who’s perhaps best known for recently having a coastal development permit revoked for his long-blighted Fields Landing property by a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors. The First District encompasses much of the southwest portion of the county, running from southern Eureka south, and incorporating Ferndale, Loleta, Scotia, Petrolia and Honeydew.

Second District Supervisor
Elected to the board in 2020, incumbent small business owner Michelle Bushnell will see two challengers in her bid to continue representing Humboldt County’s Second District, which incorporates the southeastern portion of the county, including Fortuna, Rio Dell, Garberville, Bridgeville and Shelter Cove. Challenging Bushnell in the race will be Fortuna small business owner Jeana McClendon and Blocksburg-based cannabis farmer Brian David Roberts.

Third District Supervisor
Two-term incumbent Mike Wilson, an environmental engineer by trade, is being challenged in his bid to continue representing the Third District, which includes Arcata and Blue Lake, by Eureka cannabis dispensary owner Rogelio “Roy” Gomez.

Superior Court Judge Department 1
Humboldt County didn’t have a contested judicial election in 20 years before 2018, but is now gearing up for its third since then. Challenging incumbent Greg Kreis for the Department 1 judicial seat the former conflict counsel has held since being appointed in 2017 is April Anne Van Dyke, a former Humboldt County deputy public defender who previously worked in the San Joaquin County Office of the Public Defender until 2019.

With around 1,000 or so ballots left to count, the Humboldt County Elections Office released its third post-election report today that pretty much cements races across the county.

With no real changes  overall,  the two big flips — the Ward 3 seat on the Eureka City Council and the Earth flag measure in Arcata — continued the course of last week's results.

Meanwhile Juan Pablo Cervantes, ahead by 4,800 votes, maintained his lead over Tiffany Hunt Nielsen and is now slated to become Humboldt County's next clerk/recorder/registrar of voters with a solid 56.1 percent of the vote.

Over in the Third Ward, G. Mario Fernandez kept his momentum after pulling ahead of John Fullerton last week, taking 53 percent of the vote. The two are separated by 118 votes.

In Arcata, Meredith Matthews and Kimberley White, who have overwhelmingly dominated the race for two open seats in a field of six candidates, will take their place at the dais Dec. 15 to form the city's first ever all-woman city council after taking 35 percent and 34 percent of the vote, respectively.

Also in Arcata, voters look to have given the nod to placing the Earth flag atop city owned flagpoles, with Measure M keeping its slight 51 percent lead.

This latest round brings voter turnout to 55 percent of those registered. To find all of the results click here.

The Humboldt County Elections Office released its first post-election report this afternoon, adding more than 10,000 ballots to the ongoing tally.

No races shifted with the additional tally, though some leads grew and others shrank. Most notably, Juan Pablo Cervantes, who ended Election Night with a slim lead over Tiffany Hunt Nielsen in the race to become Humboldt County's next clerk/recorder/registrar of voters, now leads commandingly with 54 percent of the vote.

On the measure side of things, Measure Q, a school bond in Ferndale, has gained ground and is now above 50 percent approval, though still short of the 55-percent needed to pass.

The freshly counted ballots now push turnout to 32 percent of registered voters.

Countywide, about 20,000 ballots remain uncounted, with 19,002 vote-by-mail ballots still need to be processed and another 1,173 provision ballots that still need to be vetted, some of which may be deemed invalid. The Elections Office plans to post updated results weekly, beginning Nov. 18.

See the latest election results here.