Carrillo wins as final tally shakes up 3 races

<p>Political newcomer Efren Carrillo won the 5th District supervisor's race by just over 600 votes, according to a final tally of the Nov. 4 vote announced Monday.</p><p>Carrillo, a Roseland resident, becomes the first Latino to serve on the five-member Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.</p><p>"It's exciting," Carrillo said. "I'm thankful to the voters, and I'm humbled by the responsibility they have given me."</p><p>He beat Rue Furch, a veteran county planning commissioner, by 605 votes in the final results.</p><p>The final tally changed the outcome of three races in the county.</p><p>There was a turnabout in the Santa Rosa Junior College District's Santa Rosa area race, with Don Edgar beating Keith Woods by 358 votes. Woods had led by 216 votes in the preliminary count.</p><p>In the Cotati City Council race, George Barich finished in third place and won a seat, beating Mike Kurvers in fourth place by five votes. Kurvers had led by 24 votes in the preliminary results.</p><p>And in the Forestville Union School District, Guy Eck won the second elected seat on the board by 31 votes, defeating Ron Abler who was ahead after the election by 24 votes.</p><p>Gloria Colter, the assistant registrar of voters, said Monday that all the ballots had been counted, and the results are final. As a matter of procedure, the tally still has to be certified, which requires a manual count in precincts that involved close races, she said. By law, elections officials have until Dec. 2 to certify results.</p><p>In the election-night results, Carrillo was 670 votes ahead of Furch. Officials said that about 34,000 absentee and provisional ballots remained to be counted and had set a goal of completing the count by Thanksgiving.</p><p>Incumbent Valerie Brown won the 1st District supervisors' race, finishing 1,298 votes ahead of challenger Will Pier. The preliminary results had Brown ahead by 1,105 votes.</p><p>Carrillo and Brown will be sworn in Jan. 6.</p><p>Carrillo said he will quit his job as education and government relations manager for Redwood Credit Union at the end of the year.</p><p>"These are difficult times," he said, noting that the county must deal with a budget crunch, job losses and greenhouse gas emissions. "The challenges are there," he said. "It's time to come together and find some solutions."</p><p>There was no change in either the Cloverdale or Rohnert Park city council races, which both had been close.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>