Benicia City Council, Benicia elections, Kari Birdseye, Terry Scott

Benicia elects Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye to City Council

Vice Mayor Scott and Councilmember Birdseye unseat two incumbents, form new progressive majority

By Roger Straw, November 11, 2022

The guesswork and waiting is over. There are more ballots to count, but concession phone calls have been made, and our local newspaper, The Benicia Herald, has called the race.

We congratulate and celebrate with Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye, our new Benicia City Council representatives.

The candidates and their campaigns worked hard, reaching out to voters throughout the city. And every candidate and residents from every camp called out the interference of Valero and labor PACs in our local election – a possible factor in a very close election.

With 5 candidates vying for the two open Council seats, Scott has a clear lead, and will become Benicia’s new Vice Mayor. Birdseye will claim the second seat as the only female voice on Council and a leader for environmental sensitivity and climate action.

A majority of Benicia Independent readers will join me in celebrating a new majority for industrial oversight, worker safety and security, climate justice and democratic (small d) values. I believe Benicia has a bright future under the leadership of Mayor Young and our four elected councilmembers, Scott, Birdseye, Campbell and Macenski.

Solano County won’t announce the final result until next week sometime, and the election won’t be certified until November 30 or thereabouts. County offices are closed today for Veteran’s Day and over the weekend, so counting of outstanding ballots will continue on Monday November 14. An update should appear on the Registrar of Voters website around 5pm on Monday.

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Benicia City Council, Benicia elections

Benicia City Council: Largaespada concedes

From his facebook page…

By Roger Straw, November 11, 2022

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=lionel%20largaespada

A few minutes ago I called to congratulate vice-mayor elect Terry Scott and councilmember elect Kari Birdseye. While there are still ballots to be counted the data indicates their respective leads will hold.
It has been the greatest honor and privilege to serve the community I love, where I raise my family and I hope they will raise theirs. Please rest assured I am not going anywhere. I served you before I got into politics and I will continue to serve you going forward. I remain available to the Benicia community and will always do my best to help where there is a need. If you need anything I can be reached at 415-377-2872… I still know people ????.
But seriously, thank you so much to my family, friends and supporters – you mean the world to me. The votes, signs, meet and greets and outpouring of support was incredible and something I will never forget.
I love you Benicia, and I’ll see you around town.
Benicia City Council, Benicia elections

Benicia City Council: Scott and Birdseye increase their lead

The trend is clear, but it’s still too early to call the race. There are around 1,900 Benicia ballots yet to count.

By Roger Straw, November 11, 2022

New votes today

Here is the updated chart showing today’s Solano County Registrar of Voters report.

Click on image to enlarge.

It’s good news for supporters of Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott, who continued adding newly counted mail-in votes at about the same winning rate as was reported on election day. 3,572 new votes were reported for Council candidates today. Of that number:

    • Terry Scott and Kari Birdseye both received exactly 886 new votes or 24.8% each;
    • Lionel Largaespada received 816 votes, 22.8%; and
    • Christina Strawbridge received 741 votes, 20.7%.

These percentages are very similar to those reported for the 10,000 mail-in ballots reported out on election day:

    • Scott 25.6%
    • Birdseye 24.5%
    • Largaespada 22.1% and
    • Strawbridge 21.1%.
Totals as of today

Ballots and votes still outstanding

As of today, Thursday at 5:40pm, the Solano County Registrar of Voters reported 17,588 outstanding countywide vote by mail ballots and another 1,671 outstanding provisional ballots. Total of around 19,000. My estimate of Benicia’s total remaining to be counted is around 10% of that, or 1,900 ballots. With each voter able to cast up to two votes for Council candidates, that means nearly 3,800 votes have yet to be split between the 5 candidates.

For the daily update of remaining countywide outstanding ballots, see Solano County Election Results.

Still close, but leaning towards Kari and Terry.

Today’s numbers again favor Scott and Birdseye. It may be too close and too early to call the race, but I am feeling good about our likely two new councilmembers, our friends Terry and Kari.

Stay tuned for daily updates – I’ll keep you posted here.

Roger

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Benicia City Council, Benicia elections

Benicia City Council: About that big number of outstanding ballots

Benicia City Council race has around 4,000 ballots yet to count, nearly double that number of votes for candidates

By Roger Straw, November 10, 2022

A number of readers have asked where I got the huge number of outstanding ballots yet to be counted. And some have rightly pointed out that the number I’ve reported is larger than the number of voters in Benicia!

Sorry I wasn’t clear – the large number of outstanding ballots is countywide. Additional Benicia votes in the coming days will account for around 10-12% of the remaining 37,500 countywide ballots still to be counted.

For the daily update of remaining countywide outstanding ballots, see Solano County Election Results.

Precise most recent numbers: As of Wednesday at 5:21pm, the Solano County Registrar of Voters reported 35,821 outstanding vote by mail ballots and another 1,671 outstanding provisional ballots. Total of 37,492. My estimate of Benicia’s total remaining to be counted is around 3,750 to 4,000 ballots. With each voter able to cast up to two votes for Council candidates, that means nearly 7,500 to 8,000 votes have yet to be split between the 5 candidates.

Benicia City Council – Two-day trend favors Birdseye, Scott

Here is a fascinating 2-day comparison, which I developed using data from the Solano County Registrar of Voters website.

Click image to enlarge. Note total figures at right in green.

On the day after election day, the County added nearly 2,000 new BENICIA ballots. With voters casting up to 2 votes for Council candidates, that translated to an increase of 3,382 additional votes counted on November 9 for our Council election.  Of those 3,382 Day-After Votes:

    • Kari Birdseye received the most votes, 861 or 25.5%;
    • Terry Scott received 853 votes, 25.2%;
    • Lionel Largaespada received 762 votes, 22.5%; and
    • Christina Strawbridge received 692 votes, 20.5%.

Still close, but leaning towards Kari and Terry.

As might be expected, these percentages resemble closely the vote-by-mail numbers reported on election day, numbers that favor Scott and Birdseye. It may be too close and too early to call the race, but I am feeling good about our likely two new councilmembers, our friends Terry and Kari.

Stay tuned for daily updates – I’ll keep you posted here.

Roger

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