The Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters completed the count from the Nov. 3 Consolidated District Election, and outcomes remain unchanged from Election Day.
Of the 175,821 eligible registered voters in Stanislaus County, Election Day saw a 21.2 percent voter turnout with 39,176 casted ballots. A total of 6,191 voters submitted their ballot on Election Day and 32,985 voted by mail. Voter turn-out was a dismal 22.28 percent with 136,645 voters completely disengaged.
Vote totals have changed for the Ceres City Council and mayor's races. Bret Durossette and Mike Kline were re-elected. Durossette, a Ceres High School teacher and coach, received 1,807 votes, or 38.99 percent. Kline, who works for Tony's Fine Foods, amassed 1,713 votes, or 36.97 percent. Challenger Don Cool lost out when he received just 714 votes, or 15.41 percent, while Melvin "Gene" Yeakley came in last place with 375 votes, or 8.09 percent.
Chris Vierra was unopposed in his re-election bid as Ceres mayor. He received 2,441 votes, or 97.25 percent of the vote. A total of 69 voters wrote in some other name while 271 didn't vote for the office.
City Treasurer Harry Herbert was unopposed for re-election and received 2,182 votes while 42 write-ins were received.
New counts for Measure D and E were also released by County Clerk-Recorder Lee Lundrigan.
Measure D passed by a margin of 1,846 (68.04 percent) to 867 (31.96 percent). The measure does away with the at-large way of electing members of the Ceres City Council and sets up four council districts.
An increase in the hotel tax in Measure E was passed by voters in a 1,571 (57.82 percent) to 1,146 (42.18 percent) vote outcome. The tax will increase from five to 10 percent at both of Ceres' motels, the Howard Johnson Inn and Microtel Inn. The Transient and Occupancy Tax (TOT) will also apply to all rooms at future motels and hotels.
In Ceres Unified School District, incumbent Jim Kinard ran unopposed for Trustee Area 1, incumbent Faye Lane ran unopposed for Trustee Area 4 and Teresa Guerrero ran unopposed for Trustee Area 7.
Final results also show incumbent Michael Frantz won the TID Board of Director position in Division 1 with 3,730 votes, which represents 83.18 percent of over 4,000 total votes from 30 precincts counted. His opponent Tracy Sunde earned 741 votes, or 16.53 percent of total votes. A total of 13 ballots included write-in candidates, which is only represents 0.29 percent of ballots cast.
Frantz, a Hickman tree grower, has already served six years on the TID Board of Directors and said he will continue to represent Division 1 by working diligently and efficiently with water during the ongoing drought.
"It feels great to have the support of the community," said Frantz. "I look forward to four more years."
Incumbent Rob Santos ran unopposed for the TID Board of Directors Division 4.
In the Keyes Community Services District race, Davie Landers and Mike Bernal have appeared to win their races for the board. Landers received 103 votes (38.87 percent) while Bernal picked up 89 votes (33.58 percent). Antonio "Tony"Aguilar lost out in third place with 68 votes (25.66 percent).
In the Riverdale Park Tract Community Services District in south Modesto incumbent board members Kelland Murphy and Diana M. Culwell-Caro have appeared to be elected along with massage therapist Timi Horn. Rudy Caro lost out. Murphy won 21 votes, Culwell-Caro received 19 and Horn 10. Rudy Caro lost with eight votes. For the two short-term seats candidates George Bixler, and Duane Shugart look to be the winners, shutting out Rita Hodges. Bixler received 19 votes and Shugart 13 votes. Hodges collected 12 votes.
Four candidates ran for three seats on the Hughson Fire Protection District. Winning those seats are Jeff Serpa with 659 votes (28.75 percent), Fire Captain Justin Vincent with 641 votes (27.97 percent) and David S. Absher with 583 votes (25.44 percent). Incumbent Miguel Oseguera, was defeated with his fourth-place standing of 406 votes (17.71 percent).
Lundrigan announced the canvass of the vote was completed Thurdsay. Stanislaus County certified its election results which can be found posted on the election website, www.stanvote.com
California law required certification of this election to take on or before Nov. 23, which is 20-days following this Election Day. This was a district election and did not include all of Stanislaus County, but did include portions of San Joaquin County.
The certification of the vote includes an official summary of the results, including a tally of votes conducted by Stanislaus County for the contest shared with San Joaquin County which overlapped county boundaries and was shared between our counties. In that race all results from both of the counties involved must be viewed and combined to establish total votes received for affected candidates.
