An effort to change Santa Clara’s City charter from an elected city clerk and police chief to appointed ones appears to have failed. According to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, both Measures A and B on the March 5 ballot have failed.
Measure A – Santa Clara’s City Clerk Will Remain Elected
At last update, around 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday night, 67.24% of voters believed that the City Charter should remain the same, with the City Clerk as an elected position.
32.76% of voters voted to change the City Charter to an elected City Clerk.
9,923 people voted on Measure A in the election.
Measure B – Santa Clara’s Police Chief Will Remain Elected
The results for Measure B were only slightly different. 72.34% of voters voted against changing the city charter to an appointed police chief. Meanwhile, 27.66% of voters voted for the charter change.
10,045 people citywide voted on the issue.
Voter Turnout for Election in Santa Clara
Voter turnout for this election was low. According to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, only about 17.80% of registered voters in the County voted.
Looking at the votes cast in the City of Santa Clara, only a handful of the City’s precincts saw a voter turnout between 20 and 30%. Turnout in a majority of the precincts was between 10 and 20%. A couple of precincts saw fewer than 10% of ballots returned.
U.S. Representative for District 17
In other races, incumbent Ro Khanna appears poised to face off with Republican Anita Chen in the November general election. Khanna received 61.14% of the vote to Chen’s 28.88%.
State Assembly District 26
As of 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday night, the race for who will represent District 26 at the State Assembly has changed. The District, which includes Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, looks to be a battle between Patrick Ahrens and a yet-to-be-named opponent.
Ahrens, a Sunnyvale resident who served on the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board, still leads the group with 34.64% of the vote.
However, Tara Sreekrishnan, who was in second place after early returns, has fallen behind. The former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education representing Trustee Area 2 is now in third place with 24.62% of the vote.
Sophie Yan Song, a CPA, has leapfrogged Sreekrishnan and now has a slight edge with 25.11% of the vote.
Since no one received more than 50% of the vote, Ahrens will face either Song or Sreekrishnan in the November general election.
At last check, Sunnyvale City Council Member Omar Din was in fourth place with 10.67% of the vote.
The candidates are running to replace Evan Low, who previously represented District 26 but decided to run to replace Anna Eshoo as the Representative for District 16 in Congress.
Otto Lee Wins District 3 in Uncontested Election
Otto Lee won an uncontested race to keep his seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors representing District 3. Lee, who represents parts of Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Northern San Jose, is the former mayor of Sunnyvale.
