Election Results Place Sheriff Sniff, DA Candidate Hestrin in Lead

Last updated at 12:25 a.m. June 4, 2014

With 81 percent of Riverside County precincts reporting, California’s June 3 open primary election night results show Prosecutor Mike Hestrin in the lead for county district attorney, while the outcome also looked favorable for Sheriff Stan Sniff’s re-election bid.

The results from vote-by-mail ballots and a growing number of precinct totals were last updated at 11:52 p.m. Tuesday by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters’ Office.

Polls closed at 8 p.m.

The Registrar’s office, in a Facebook post shortly after 8 p.m., said: “Workers are now performing legally required closing procedures at the polling places. When completed, ballots go to the collection center, then to the Registrar of Voters for counting.”

With 54.73 percent of the vote, Hestrin led incumbent District Attorney Paul Zellerbach, who garnered 45.27 percent of the vote-by-mail and early voting totals.

Sheriff Sniff had 63.04 percent of the vote to challenger Chad Bianco’s 36.96 percent.

In the governor’s primary race, Gov. Jerry Brown led his contenders with 54.9 percent of votes as of 12:04 a.m. Wednesday. His sole Democratic challenger, Akinyemi Agbede, had garnered .09 percent of the vote. Battling to face Brown in the November general election, Republican candidate Neel Kashkari had 18.4 percent of the vote to Republican Tim Donnelly’s 14.7 percent.

Incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom’s 50.1 percent of the vote put him ahead of the Democratic pack for California lieutenant governor. Republican Ron Nehring had garnered 23.1 percent.

Also, it appeared California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris had secured her spot in the November election. Harris had garnered 53.1 percent of early results, with Republicans Ronald Gold (12.8 percent) and Phil Wyman (11.3 percent) currently battling to challenge her for the office.

The early results also indicated positive results for incumbent State Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson, who had 47.9 percent of votes to Marshall Tuck’s 27.9 percent and Lydia A. Gutierrez’s 24.2 percent. However, Torlakson needs to secure 50 percent of the votes or greater to avoid a runoff election.

Riverside County Superintendent of Schools incumbent Kenneth M. Young led challenger Michael Martinez Scott in the early results—66.84 percent to 33.16 percent.

It was a closer race for the 28th District State Senate seat. With 76.78 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Jeff Stone was slightly ahead in the race, managing 21.67 percent of votes. Republican Bonnie Garcia had received 19.19 percent, while Democratic candidate Philip Drucker had 19.24 percent and Republican Glenn Miller, 19.37 percent.

The yes votes for Proposition 41 (Veterans Housing and Homeless Bond Act of 2014) and Proposition 42 (Public Records, Open Meetings, Reimbursements) both outweighed the no votes. More than 60 percent of voters lent their support to the measures as of midnight, with 70 percent of statewide precincts reporting.

Locally, Mark Cope, S. Suzanne Sykes and Sean Lafferty all had sizeable leads in their respective races for Superior Court seats.

Current Republican U.S. Congressman Ken Calvert was in the lead to secure another term representing the 42nd District. Calvert had 66.54 percent of votes to Democrat Tim Sheridan’s 16.17 percent, Democrat Chris Marquez’s 11.38 percent and Democrat Kerri Condley’s 5.91 percent.

Melissa Melendez (71^st District) and Marie Waldron (75^th District), who both ran uncontested, appeared to be on their way to securing another two years in the State Assembly.

Updated results can be found throughout the evening on the Registrar’s website, http://www.voteinfo.net.