No Races Changed by Absentee Ballots

There were no surprises in five closely contested Ventura County races as election officials finished tallying about 85,000 absentee ballots, but the nearly complete tallies did show a preference flip in the presidential race from Al Gore to George Bush.

About 5,500 “provisional” ballots--those that were damaged or excepted for other reasons--remain to be counted, but county elections chief Bruce Bradley said that any significant change is unlikely with so much of the vote counted.

However, results will not be official and Bradley will not announce totals until Nov. 28.

With 98% of the votes counted, there appear to be winners in extremely tight races on the Santa Paula and Moorpark city councils, the Thousand Oaks school board and the Ventura County Community College District board.

The closest race in the county was for two seats on the Santa Paula City Council, where Ray Luna appears to have edged Alfonso Guilin. John Procter, who backed the city’s successful SOAR anti-sprawl initiative, remains in the lead there.

In Moorpark, where two seats are being filled, Roseann Mikos’ lead over Keith Millhouse was trimmed to only 28 votes, 4,112 to 4,084. Incumbents Chris Evans and Debbie Rodgers came in third and fourth place, respectively.

In Thousand Oaks, Dorothy Beaubien and Dolores Didio appear to have defeated closest challenger Laura Lee Custodio for seats as Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees.

Incumbent Robert Gonzalez, Santa Paula’s police chief, appears to have defeated Ruth Hemming for a seat on the community college board.

In the presidential race, Bush is ahead 134,506 to 131,123.