As the old adage goes, every vote counts, something two candidates locked in a tie for a third open seat on the Blue Lake City Council now know all too well.
The final cumulative report from the Nov. 5 election released by the Humboldt County Elections Office on Tuesday shows hopefuls Adelene Jones and Kat Napier locked in a dead heat with 245 votes each.
That’s the same total as last week’s post election results, when each gained two additional votes from the previous week’s update, which had them tied at 243 votes.
So the question becomes: What happens next in Blue Lake?
Under state Elections Code, the answer is “to determine the tie by lot,” meaning the luck of the draw or the drawing of straws or a flip of the coin, basically a means by which each candidate has an equal chance of winning.
Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Juan P. Cervantes was not immediately available for comment but in an interview with Lost Coast Outpost last week pointed to the same state Elections Code, which outlines having the outcome determined by a random selection.
Cervantes also said the tie does not trigger a recount but someone could request one, if they wanted to pay for the costs.
Blue Lake City Manager Amanda Mager says the situation is uncharted territory for the city.
“We’ve never done this before,” she says. “Our attorneys drafted up a resolution to be able to resolve this tie. I don’t know that we’ll literally draw straws, but it will be some form of random drawing that will decide the tie breaker.”
Mager says unless Jones or Napier decides they want to stand down, which she doesn’t expect, the matter will be decided in open session at the council’s Dec. 10 meeting.
“That’s how we’ll resolve it,” she says, noting that the exact mechanism for randomly deciding the outcome is yet to be determined. “It’s crazy.”
According to the Elections Office, there were 463 undervotes in the Blue Lake City Council race, meaning any one of those who chose fewer than three candidates or skipped the race altogether could have cast the decisive vote.
While unusual, ties do happen. Just last night, the small city of Galt, located about 20 miles south of Sacramento with a population of 26,000, had its tied candidates pick from one of three straws to determine a victor, according to media reports.
Facing the same situation after the November 2022 election, the cities of Sunnyvale and Richmond took to a random drawing, with each candidate writing their name on a slip of paper and sealing it in an envelope that was placed in a bag. After each got a shake, according to news coverage, the respective city clerks pulled out the winning candidate.
The final count in Humboldt didn’t change much else in the other county races and measures on the ballot, adding 139 votes to the tally for a total of 65,232 votes counted in this election — representing nearly 77 percent of registered voters.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is slated to certify the results Dec. 10.
Here’s a rundown of the results in the races for city council, open seats on the Humboldt Bay Harbor and Conservation District and local ballot measures.
Arcata City Council (three seats)
Stacy Atkins-Salazar — 4,647 votes (24.85 percent)
Gregory Daggett — 1,667 votes (8.91 percent)
Shea Love Freedomhowler — 1,144 votes (6.12 percent)
Dana Quillman — 684 votes (3.66 percent)
Sarah Schaefer — 4,187 votes (22.39 percent)
Genevieve Serna — 3,025 votes (16.18 percent)
Alexandra Stillman — 3,334 votes (17.83 percent)
Blue Lake City Council (three seats)
Christopher Edgar — 210 votes (13 percent)
Christopher Guy Firor — 233 votes (14.42 percent)
Adelene Jones — 245 votes (15.16 percent)
Michelle Lewis Lusso — 285 votes (17.64 percent)
Katheryn Napier — 245 (15.16 percent)
Verda Winona Natasha Pitts — 148 votes (9.16 percent)
John Swatzky — 250 votes (15.47 percent)
Eureka City Council, Ward 2
Kenny Carswell — 724 votes (38.23)
Kati Moulton — 1,170 votes (61.77 percent)
Eureka City Council, Ward 4
Scott Bauer — 1,866 votes (68.58 percent)
Thavisak Lucky Syphanthong — 855 votes (31.42 percent)
Ferndale City Council (two seats)
Stuart Altschuler — 365 votes (23.78 percent)
Ryan Farmer — 291 votes (18.96 percent)
Leonard Lund — 448 votes (29.19 percent)
Philip Ostler — 431 votes (28.08 percent)
Fortuna City Council (two seats)
Jerry King — 2,163 votes (29.08 percent)
Neleen Nichols — 1,400 votes (18.82 percent)
Arlene Spiers — 1,157 votes (15.56 percent)
Tami Trent — 2,717 votes (36.53 percent)
Humboldt Bay Harbor and Conservation District, Division 1
Jake Pickering — 1,565 votes (26.98 percent)
Tom Wheeler — 4,236 votes (73.02 percent)
Humboldt Bay Harbor and Conservation District, Division 5
Wilfred Franklin — 5,133 votes (47.59 percent)
Jack Norton — 5,654 votes (52.41 percent)
Ballot Measures
Measure D: Would impose a special tax to fund Kneeland Fire Protection District services. Yes: 311 (73.70 percent). No: 111 (26.30 percent)
Measure E: Would impose a special tax to fund Peninsula Community Services District fire services. 153 (83.15 percent). No: 31 (16.85 percent)
Measure F: Would enact zoning changes to protect Eureka municipal parking lots from development and rezone the former Jacobs Middle School campus. 3,490 (30.61 percent). No: 7,913 (69.39 percent)
Measure G: Would renew a special parcel tax to fund Arcata School District services. 5,423 (82.47 percent). No: 1,153 (17.53 percent)
Measure H: Would impose a 0.75-percent sales tax in Arcata to fund city services. 5,277 (65.19 percent). No: 2,818 (34.81 percent)
*Measure I: Would allow the Redwoods Community College District to issue up to $120 million in school bonds. Yes: 35,301 (58.01 percent). No: 25,555 (41.99 percent)
*Measure J: Would allow the Ferndale Unified School District to issue up to $9.8 million in school bonds. 898 (54.36 percent). No: 754 (45.64 percent)
*Measure K: Would allow the Cutten School District to issue up to $5 million in school bonds. 1,548 (56.72 percent). No: 1,181 (43.28 percent)
Measure L: Would extend a 0.75-percent sales tax in Trinidad to fund city services Yes: 145 (67.44 percent). No: 70 (32.56 percent)
Measure M: Would increase the appropriations limit for the Arcata Fire Protection District for existing revenue. Yes: 13,295 (74.92 percent). No: 4,450 (25.08 percent)
*Measure N: Would allow the McKinleyville Union School District to issue up to $18.5 million in school bonds. 4,918 (60.90 percent). No: 3,157 (39.10 percent) Measure O: Would impose a 1-percent sales tax countywide to support county services, including road repairs and emergency response. Yes: 39,211 (63.41 percent). No: 22,629 (36.59 percent)
Measure P: Would impose a 0.75-percent sales tax in Fortuna to fund city services. Yes: 2,164 (41.67 percent). No: 3,029 (58.33 percent)
This article appears in Holiday Gift Guide 2024.