When a round of lately received ballots in the ongoing City Council election was counted this afternoon, first-place Meghan Sahli-Wells impressively grew her already lopsided lead and runnerup Thomas Small’s margin over Goran Eriksson shrank by a speck.
Here is the drama, if drama it be:
Ms. Sahli-Wells, the most popular progressive in Culver City and the runaway election winner even before the counting began, at 3,631 votes is not near a Culver City record.
Never mind that she expanded her lead today over Mr. Small from 1,000 to a whopping 1,315.
If she keeps this up, Ms. Sahli-Wells may deserve her own separate elevated dais when the new City Council is convened at 7 o’clock Monday evening in Council Chambers.
Although Alan Corlin was believed to have set a record in 2004 when he drew 3,750 votes, that claim has been rejected.
In 1964, when Culver City was vastly different from the contemporary version, Dan Patacchia – whose name lives on at City Hall – gained 4,646 votes. This total is unlikely to be matched unless Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton agree to share the White House.
Otherwise, no meaningful movement was detected in the seven-candidate field, and none of last week’s three seat-winners was even remotely imperiled. Mr. Small’s lead over third-place winner Mr. Eriksson dropped imperceptibly, from 224 votes to 206.
With City Clerk Martin Cole presiding, 1,238 more recently arrived mail ballots were counted this afternoon.
In the process, Mr. Cole pulled back on his enthusiastic projection that a “relative record” number of residents may have voted.
Before the first precinct vote was announced at 1:20, Mr. Cole was estimating the turnout at 23 to 24 percent.
By the end of counting, at 1:50, Mr. Cole projected a more 21 percent.
One more counting will be staged – Thursday afternoon at 1 in Council Chambers
Somewhere between 238 and 288 ballots are scheduled to be tabulated. The reason for the 50-vote swing is too dull to identify.
Here are the present totals, with the Election Day results listed first:
- Ms. Sahli-Wells 2,760 3,631
- Mr. Small 1,769 2,316
- Mr. Eriksson 1,645 2,110
- Daniel Lee 1,423 1,854
- Scott Wyant 1,275 1,671
- Marcus Tiggs 1,103 1,420
- Jay Garocochea 574 732
