San Jose Inside will be checking out Election Night parties and badgering the county Registrar of Voters for the rest of the evening. Come join us. We'll be updating throughout the night.
Here's the rundown of local races affecting San Jose and Santa Clara County.
12:48am: Sam Liccardo's lead just jumped—a smidge—in the latest results. He's now holding a little less than a 2,000 vote lead over Cortese: 37 of 495 precincts and
12:24am: Who's ready to stay up until 4am? What about 4am next Tuesday? It's almost half past midnight and the results are still too close to call—but they're in Sam Liccardo's favor for the time being. At last check, the San Jose councilman had a 1.92-percent lead over Dave Cortese in the mayor's race, or just 1,718 votes. A little more than half of the 495 precincts have been checked off the list. According to KQED, Cortese said he doesn't expect the election to be decided for a least the week and called the race, "San Jose’s Florida without the hanging chads."
9:20pm: Check out San Jose Inside's Twitter feed for more updates as the night goes on.
9:09pm: San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed predicts a Sam Liccardo victory. Reed says the lead will only grow as votes are counted.
8:53pm: San Jose Inside just spoke with Shannon Bushey, county Registrar of Voters, and she says the 8pm returns represent just half of the vote by mail ballots in Santa Clara County. With not a single precinct yet reported from today's in-person votes, a clear picture might not be available in some races until 4am, Bushey says.
4am!
The county absolutely needs to update its voting system. Take the San Jose mayor's race as an example. With Cortese and Liccardo separated by just a couple percentage points for the time being, this race could linger for days if someone doesn't concede later this evening. And that's a real possibility.
And none of this even takes into account that there could be tens of thousands of provisional ballots yet to arrive.
"People are going to want their instant answers, but they're just not going to be able to get them," Bushey says.
8:34pm: Matthew Harris has a commanding lead on county Judge Diane Ritchie. All that bad press appears to have sunk her re-election bid.
8:30pm: Evan Low is on his way to Sacramento. He's routing Chuck Page to succeed his boss, Paul Fong, in the State Assembly.
8:28pm: By the way, this election is never going to end. Kansen Chu's cakewalk to victory in the State Assembly sets off special election for San Jose Council District 4 in the spring.
8:22pm: Gary Kremen has a slight edge over Brian Schmidt in the nearly half-million dollar Santa Clara Valley water District race. (Almost all of which has been spent by Kremen.) He has 51.95 percent of the vote with 73 of 212 precincts reported.
8:26pm: By the way, this election is just the beginning. A series of special elections are coming, starting with replacing San Jose Council District 4. Kansen Chu is cruising to victory for a State Assembly seat. Special election this spring.
8:20pm: Mike Honda has a 3,000-vote lead over Ro Khanna for 53.8 percent. Can Khanna climb back? Just 20 of 257 precincts reported so far.
8:17pm: Prop 47, the push to reduce heavy-handed drug sentences to misdemeanors, looking good out of the gate.
Approval of change to San Jose retirement boards through Measure G looks tight. Yes vote (for change) has slight edge, 51.89 percent.
Doesn't look like @Bay101Casino is going to #Milpitas any time soon. No vote has 73% in first returns.
8:08pm: Charles "Chappie" Jones is killing Paul Fong in vote by mail for San Jose Council District 1. Jones got more than 60 percent of 6,900-plus votes counted. Maybe that party at Winchester Mystery Mansion wasn't so ominous after all. Four of 46 precincts.
8:06pm: Raul Peralez is dominating the absentee ballots, with 57 percent of vote to Don Gagliardi's 42 percent in San Jose Council District 3. Four of 43 precincts reported.
8:03pm: Tam Nguyen has a commanding lead on Maya Esparza in the first returns. He has almost 60 percent of the vote. Only one of 40 precincts reported, though.
8pm: Sam Liccardo has a slight lead over Dave Cortese in the San Jose mayoral returns. 51 to 49 percent. 73,206 votes in so far.
7:59pm: The ROV website says there are 805,502 registered voters n Santa Clara County. Expected turnout is in the 40-50 percent range.
7:55pm: A few fun facts:
- The mayor's race in San Jose has 495 precincts.
- 46 precincts in District 1.
- 43 precincts in District 3.
- 40 precincts in District 7.
None of them will be fully reported until very late this evening.
