Turnout tops 45% in final Sonoma County election results for June 7 primary

The results of Sonoma County’s June 7 primary election have been certified, showing that 137,725 residents cast their ballots, representing a voter turnout topping 45%.

Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Proto announced she had completed the counting, reconciliation processes and other statutory requirements to finalize the races Friday afternoon.

The certification, which came hours after adding a final batch of less than 300 ballots to the tally, did not change the outcome in any races.

The outcomes of the county’s four closest races became clear following an updated count late Tuesday afternoon.

Eddie Engram won outright the three-way race for Sonoma County sheriff, while Supervisor David Rabbitt won reelection to his 2nd District seat and Oscar Pardo prevailed in the race for a Sonoma County Superior Court judicial seat.

The race for Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools is headed for a runoff between Amie Carter and Brad Coscarelli.

A total of 45.3% of Sonoma County’s 304,008 registered voters cast a ballot in the election — slightly lower than Proto originally expected, but higher than the state average of 32.5%.

The certification process, Proto said, includes ensuring each ballot matches a registered voter, the numbers align, all of the results have been reported, all paperwork has been filled out and a manual tally of 1% of the ballots has been completed.

Proto said she was pleased with how it went, adding that she faced “a little bit more scrutiny because we had a lot of close races that people were really interested in and wanted those final results.”

Sonoma County’s final tally came 17 days after polls closed at 8 p.m. June 7 and counting commenced.

State law gives counties 30 days to certify. Proto credited the new voting model, which allowed people to cast votes at any polling location for multiple days leading up to Election Day, for the relative speed with which the election was certified.

“We saved a lot of administrative work after the election, so we were able to finalize the results faster,” Proto said regarding the new system. “We got a lot of good feedback from poll workers and voters being able to go wherever they wanted.”

The numbers also reflected that while many voters returned their ballots within days of receiving them, Proto said she had a large number of last-minute ballots, more “than we’ve seen in the past. It just appears that a lot of people waited for the last minute to cast their vote, by mail, by dropoff.”

“Some were postmarked after Election Day, and so weren’t able to be counted,” she added. “The majority were valid and were counted.”

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 707-521-5337 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.