Mahan’s lead inches up in latest ballot tally but San Jose mayor candidates remain in suspense

Matt Mahan maintained a small however rising lead over Cindy Chavez within the race to function San Jose’s first new mayor in eight years, however with tens of 1000's of ballots but to be counted, the competition remained too near name and is probably not settled for days.

Thursday’s night poll rely replace put Mahan 5,452 votes forward of Chavez, a slight enhance from his 4,766 vote lead Wednesday night time, with 51.76% to her 48.24%.

“The trajectory continues to stay constructive and we proceed to be deeply grateful to the 1000's of people that labored so laborious to struggle for widespread sense and alter,” Mahan, the District 10 Metropolis Councilman, mentioned Thursday night. “There are nonetheless many tens of 1000's of ballots to be counted and we is not going to be making any declarations tonight.”

Chavez, a Santa Clara County supervisor, echoed her remarks after Wednesday’s replace, telling supporters that “it was a spirited marketing campaign and it’s critically essential that each vote is counted. Whereas we don’t but know the result of this race, my focus stays on representing my neighborhood on the Board of Supervisors.”

The winner will substitute termed-out Mayor Sam Liccardo, who has endorsed Mahan, together with enterprise and actual property teams, whereas Mahan’s fellow council members gave their nod to Chavez, who loved labor and enterprise assist.

Elections officers mentioned they don't have any method of understanding what number of ballots stay uncounted. Whole votes solid within the mayor’s race Thursday stood at 155,092, up from 138,222 Wednesday night time.

The county issued a complete of 557,617 ballots to registered voters in San Jose, however what number of can be crammed out and returned is difficult to say. As of Thursday, 207,346 ballots had been returned from San Jose, or 37% of these despatched out. That’s greater than the 180,930 votes solid within the metropolis’s final open mayor race in 2014 when Liccardo defeated Dave Cortese by 2,750 votes.

Michael Borja, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County elections workplace, mentioned Thursday that 247,000 ballots countywide have but to be processed. However Borja mentioned there’s no option to know what number of of these ballots are from San Jose voters.

Elections officers have anticipated an general turnout countywide of 55%-65%, which might imply greater than half the ballots have but to be counted.

Garrick Percival, a San Jose State College political science professor, mentioned Thursday that a 50% turnout price “can be on the upper facet of what's typical in SJ mayoral races.”

“We’re in all probability taking a look at about one other 130,000-140,000 votes nonetheless on the market,” Percival mentioned, or about twice what has been tallied, revising an earlier estimate based mostly on new knowledge. However he mentioned Mahan stays in a extra favorable place.

“Until we see considerably completely different margins within the newer batches of votes, they usually must be pretty closely tilted towards Chavez, that’s not prone to change the trajectory of the race,” he mentioned.

Ballots should be postmarked by Nov. 8 however can be counted so long as they arrive by Nov. 15. Santa Clara County election employees can be working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Veterans Day, by the weekend and into subsequent week processing ballots. The employees should examine that the poll envelope signature matches what’s on file for the voter, study and flatten the poll so it gained’t jam the counting machines, and run them by.

The mayor race turned on questions of who would greatest deal with rising violent crime and homelessness.

Chavez, a labor chief who additionally served as a San Jose councilwoman and vice mayor, ran on her expertise in elected workplace. She mentioned San Jose’s police drive stays 200 officers wanting the division’s staffing when she left Metropolis Corridor after 2006. She pointed to her efforts to get a $950 million bond for inexpensive housing handed, which helped home 20,000 folks over the past 5 years.

Mahan, a former social media entrepreneur and schoolteacher who joined the council in 2020, countered that homeless encampments have proliferated whereas Chavez’ centered on costly and time-consuming long-term inexpensive housing tasks. He argued efforts to develop the town’s police drive have been restricted by the price of beneficiant profit packages that Chavez and different council members accredited years in the past, and that her bail reforms have put too many criminals again out on the streets.

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