As Election Day approaches, O.C. candidates consider how to celebrate amid a pandemic

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, sitting in a dark suit, watches election night results in 2012.

By Lilly Nguyen

and Andrew Turner

Published Oct. 30, 2020 Updated Oct. 31, 2020 5:43 PM PT

With expected delays in election results due to an increase in mail-in voting this year, it’s possible that voters may not know the official results of November’s presidential election Tuesday night.

But that hasn’t deterred many candidates in Orange County elections from trying to find ways to still watch results tick in on election night in spite of restrictions on large gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Costa Mesa, where there are 15 candidates running for three seats on the City Council, current Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley and Mayor Pro Tem John Stephens said they’d be hosting a watch party on Tuesday through Zoom while candidates Ben Chapman, Sandy Genis, Don Harper and Hengameh Abraham would be hosting an in-person watch party for results on this year’s election.

Temperatures will be checked at the door for the in-person event and chairs and tables will be distanced from one another. Chapman said he’d been receiving texts and emails on election night celebrations and that plans for the watch party were finalized Friday.

“We are eager to see our friends and family in person, safely,” Chapman said in an e-mail.

Jim Cunneen, who is one of seven running for two seats on the Fountain Valley City Council, said he planned on joining the Michelle Steel for Congress campaign team in the afternoon.

“We actually have a Fountain Valley City Council meeting that’s still scheduled. But the tradition is that it gets canceled on election night,” Cunneen said. “If for some strange reason — and that’s possible this year, 2020 is full of strange things — there is a council meeting, I will be over at council chambers.”

If there wasn’t, he said he planned on dropping by Fountain Valley School District board of trustees President Jeanne Galindo’s home for a small gathering to watch for the vote returns.

Cunneen said he felt the energy of election night would be lower than in typical years because of COVID-19, adding that he felt technology filled some of the gaps.

The Orange County Health Care Agency reported another 164 new cases and eight deaths related to COVID-19 on Saturday. This moves the total number of cases in the county to 59,882 and number of deaths to 1,483. An estimated 53,385 have recovered.

“I think, just as we are living in these times when we’re trying to be safe and trying to practice all the protocols, I just think a lot of us are used to it. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of extra energy. I could be wrong, but I think at least for me, I want to be careful,” Cunneen said. “I have family members who have COVID-19 right now in other counties. It’s important for me to be mindful of safety first.”

In Newport Beach, candidate and incumbent Brad Avery said he planned on staying home with his wife, Julie, to binge “Bosch,” while monitoring results and making trips to the kitchen for mint chocolate chip gelato and frozen chocolate almonds.

Avery said he was just hoping for a peaceful national election with a decisive result on Tuesday.

In Laguna Beach, George Weiss said he’d also be spending election night with his family and had no plans for retiring for the night.

“It depends on how the races play out,” Weiss said.

Jeff Herdman in Newport Beach said he planned on hosting a dinner for family and his campaign committee at his daughter’s house on election night “as a way of saying thanks to people who have worked so hard on my reelection and to repeat what I did four years ago.”

“[I’m] looking forward to continuing to serve the people of Newport Beach if I am reelected,” he said. “If not, my wife and I have plans we’re looking forward to.”

As for Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill and Laguna Beach Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow, they aren’t sure yet on what their plans are.

O’Neill said he never really liked being in a big group when the preliminary results come out, but said that he for sure wasn’t going to be hosting an election night party like he did in 2016.

“I appreciate running unopposed this year, which has allowed me to continue [to] focus on our city’s response to COVID, state and county orders and our city’s core infrastructure,” O’Neill said. “Some folks have said that my running unopposed is a testament to how we have handled this year, but there had to have been some people who looked at what we’ve been through and thought: ‘No thanks!’”

In-person voting kicked off on Friday at the 168 vote centers throughout Orange County. There are about 1.7 million active registered voters in the county and data from the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ office currently reports that at least 750,000 mail-in ballots have already been returned, a jump from the 437,793 returned ballots reported just last week.

Here are the latest cumulative coronavirus case counts and COVID-19 deaths for select cities in Orange County:

Santa Ana: 11,543 cases; 317 deaths
Anaheim: 10,236 cases; 318 deaths
Huntington Beach: 2,622 cases; 86 deaths
Costa Mesa: 2,038 cases; 44 deaths
Irvine: 1,915 cases; 14 deaths
Newport Beach: 1,247 cases; 26 deaths
Fountain Valley: 574 cases; 20 deaths
Laguna Beach: 252 cases; fewer than five deaths

Here are the case counts by age group, followed by deaths:

0 to 17: 4,457 cases; one death
18 to 24: 8,975 cases; five deaths
25 to 34: 12,860 cases; 21 deaths
35 to 44: 9,526 cases; 38 deaths
45 to 54: 9,642 cases; 115 deaths
55 to 64: 7,198 cases; 205 deaths
65 to 74: 3,623 cases; 293 deaths
75 to 84: 1,991 cases; 323 deaths
85 and older: 1,563 cases; 482 deaths

Updated figures are posted daily at occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/coronavirus-in-oc. For information on getting tested, visit occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/covid-19-testing.

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As Election Day approaches, O.C. candidates consider how to celebrate amid a pandemic

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