Measure O passes in Sonoma County as Santa Rosa council race remains tight

Friday evening brought the posting of about 29,000 more Sonoma County ballots, driving turnout to nearly 90% and all but deciding the fourth of four Santa Rosa City Council races.

Natalie Rogers, a marriage and family therapist, continues to hold a narrow lead in the Santa Rosa City Council race to represent District 7, which includes parts of west and southwest Santa Rosa. Rogers, who has never run for office before, would be the first Black woman ever elected to City Council in Santa Rosa.

Rogers had 4,512 votes out of 10,616, or 42.5%, as of Friday when county election officials overseen by Registrar of Voters Deva Marie Proto uploaded the latest batch of results from the Nov. 3 general election.

Rogers was leading Eric Christensen, the owner of a visual special effects firm, by fewer than 200 votes. Christensen had received 4,330 votes, or about 40.8% of the vote. Rogers has appeared to maintain a narrow lead since the results came in after polls closed on Election Day but was still watching the votes come in with the rest of us.

“I’m just waiting for them to come out with the final numbers,” Rogers said. “It’s not over until they say it’s over.”

Rogers said she is using the post-election window to spend time with her family and practice self-care. Anticipating a steep learning curve if she indeed takes office, she said she’s also been considering potential appointments to boards and commissions and listening to residents’ concerns and suggestions.

“I’m ready to get to work,” she said.

Christensen did not respond to a phone message and an email Friday evening. He has not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Press Democrat since Election Day.

With 267,615 ballots in the system so far, about 3,000 votes remain to be counted, most of which are provisional ballots, Proto said. And straggling mail-in ballots could still be counted if they arrive by next Friday, assuming they’re postmarked by Nov. 3.

That would put this election’s voter turnout at almost exactly 90% of the 300,586 registered voters in Sonoma County. The record is about 93% in 2008, which like this year featured a hotly contested presidential race.

It’s unclear which races those outstanding votes could affect because election officials won’t know until a ballot is processed where its voter lives.

Proto has until Dec. 3 to certify the election results as final, and any candidate has five days after that date to request a recount.

Also in the District 7 race is attorney Daniela Pavone, who had received 1,774 votes, or about 16.7%.

Councilmen Ernesto Olivares and Dick Dowd, both of whom are serving at-large, will leave the council when their terms expire next month. Two other incumbents, Councilmen Chris Rogers and Jack Tibbetts, handily won re-election to their second two-year terms.

The other new member of the council will be businessman Eddie Alvarez, who triumphed in District 1, which includes Roseland and other parts of south Santa Rosa.

Friday’s results made it clear that Measure O, a proposed countywide quarter-cent sales tax to pay for new mental health and homelessness services, had passed with more than two-thirds of the vote.

As of Friday, Measure O had received more than 175,000 “yes“ votes. Even if 3,000 more “no” votes are counted and no new “yes” votes are added — a highly unlikely prospect — the measure would still narrowly be above the 67% threshold it needs to succeed.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane, a Measure O supporter and long an advocate for better mental health care locally, called Friday’s updated results “the best news of my life” and “nothing short of a miracle” given the hefty two-thirds margin the initiative had to reach.

"This shows you how much people care about this issue,“ Zane said. ”I am so grateful to the voters of Sonoma County. ... There’s nobody that’s not felt the pain and the agony of our disasters, of COVID and several mental illnesses.“

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.