Final 2018 General Election Results, Annotated

What’s left to count? Nothing! (unless there’s a recount.) Well, maybe the counts in our neighboring counties aren’t done (I’m not even checking), but there’s only one close race crossing county lines left where we might expect more votes — Fullerton High School District 1 — and we’re giving up on it.

By Thursday, we were down to covering just 14 close races, plus the local vote for Governor and the Measure L races, so we’ll start with the winners from those:

Governor: Newsom wins OC by 3,096.
Laguna Beach Unified: Kelley edges De Bretteville for third seat by 19 votes, 5546 to 5527. (This could justify a recount.)
Los Alamitos Unified: Hill edged Barke for second seat by 31 votes, 9608-9577. (Could also justify a recount.)
Fullerton Jt. Union H.S: Jeng leads Cuadra in LA by 207, so Cuadra’s lead of 134 in OC falls short.
Huntington Beach City Schools: Kowalke beats Hayden for third seat by 180.
Ocean View Schools: Souders beats VD Mark by 2,632, 3.6%.
4th District Supervisor: Chaffee beats Shaw by 1,332, 0.8%.
Anaheim Mayor: Sidhu beats Aitken by 478, 0.6%. I don’t foresee a recount here, but I’d sure like a look at what ballots were are were not counted after objections were resolved.
Buena Park Seat 1: Sunny Park beats Vaughn by 16 votes, o.4%. Buena Park elects its first Asian Council member [… since convicted Mayor Miller Oh, that is; thanks to our commenter for the correction.]
Laguna Woods: Rainey beats Troutman for second seat by 62 0.4%.
Newport Beach Seat 3: Duffield beats Stoaks by 36, raw totals 18,458-18,422. That’s a margin of 0.0976%. If Stoaks has the money, I’d advise him to recount this one.
Santa Ana Mayor: Pulido beats Tinajero by 686, so my guess was off by 20. With only a 0.4% loss, Tinajero should start raising money for 2022 (when Pulido is termed out) to run for Mayor against some police-and-corruption candidate like Jose Solorio.
Irvine Ranch Water District: Peer Swan takes the third seat over Andrew Pollard by a Lincolnesque 1860 votes, or 0.7%.
Anaheim Measure J: Yes, those new hotels, if built, will be covered by this higher minimum wage.

Here’s the raw data from the ROV’s final report for the 2018 cycle (barring corrections from things like a recount). I’ll add notes to this piece at a leisurely pace and then push it back to the front for a re-release. Thanks for sharing the election with me, Vern, and the rest of the OJB elections coverage crowd!

The votes, they dwindled down to a precious few. And then, poof! Now here are the full results, below!

Registration and Turnout

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Reg/Turnout	Percentage
Total Registered Voters	1,558,988
Precinct Registration	1,558,988
Precinct Ballots Cast	393,423	25.2%
Early Ballots Cast	23,550	1.5%
Vote-by-Mail Ballots Cast	689,756	44.2%
Total Ballots Cast	1,106,729	71.0%

Analysts will be looking at this blip in the OC midterm general election turnout results for a century. And they’ll probably ask: “was it Trump?” YES OF COURSE IT WAS!

Governor

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
GAVIN NEWSOM (DEM)	543,047	50.1%
JOHN H. COX (REP)	539,951	49.9%

It’s less impressive that Newsom won that county than (1) that every other Democrat running against a Republican won it by more and (2) that the only Democrat running by against an NPP lost by the largest margin of any of the single-seat State Executive races. Top vote-getter: NPP Steve Poizner. Top Dem: Betty Yee.

Lieutenant Governor

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
ELENI KOUNALAKIS (DEM)	463,979	53.5%
ED HERNANDEZ (DEM)	402,773	46.5%

Eleni becomes a serious contender for Governor in 2026. She’ll have plenty of company there.

Secretary of State

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
* ALEX PADILLA (DEM)	556,611	52.3%
MARK P. MEUSER (REP)	507,861	47.7%

This result does surprise me a bit.

Controller

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
* BETTY T. YEE (DEM)	561,245	52.9%
KONSTANTINOS RODITIS (REP)	499,228	47.1%

Yee was not only the top Dem vote-getter in the State races, but she did it while running against a resident of Anaheim Hills! A more likely bet to become Governor than Eleni, I’d say.

Treasurer

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
FIONA MA (DEM)	549,402	51.8%
GREG CONLON (REP)	510,967	48.2%

Small but strange amount of drop-off for Ma’s race.

Attorney General

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
* XAVIER BECERRA (DEM)	550,097	51.7%
STEVEN C BAILEY (REP)	514,686	48.3%

Becerra’s strong and visible anti-Trump challenges probably inflated the vote against him here — highest for the Republican opponent of any victorious Democrat except Cox.

Insurance Commissioner

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
STEVE POIZNER	578,049	57.1%
RICARDO LARA (DEM)	433,457	42.9%

The most popular Republican politician in this election is the one who is no longer a Republican.

Member, State Board of Equalization 4th District

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
JOEL ANDERSON (REP)	531,307	51.3%
MIKE SCHAEFER (DEM)	503,939	48.7%

But Zappa’s buddy Schaefer won the rest of the district by more! Credit David Dobson for making a difference here!

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Completed Precincts: 1546 of 1546

	Vote Count	Percentage
* DIANNE FEINSTEIN (DEM)	501,678	54.4%
KEVIN DE LEON (DEM)	420,814	45.6%

Almost exactly the state average. When has THAT happened?

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 38th District

Completed Precincts: 9 of 9

	Vote Count	Percentage
LINDA T. S�NCHEZ (DEM)	2,990	53.6%
RYAN DOWNING (REP)	2,587	46.4%