SMMUSD Board of Education
Four available seats
Wednesday 12 p.m.:The Daily Press is still waiting to hear how many absentee and provisional ballots were cast at polling places last night. These results are deemed semi-official by the Los Angeles County Registrar. Lieberman will be reelected. Foster and Tahvildaran-Jesswein appear to be safe. De la Torre is sitting in fourth place with a nearly 300 vote lead on Mechur.
1:33 a.m. Incumbents gain.
1 a.m.: De la Torre manages to pull ahead of Mechur by 122 votes as we reach 61 percent. Richard TJ, de la Torre, Mechur and Foster have been playing musical board of education chairs all night, as Lieberman still holds a strong lead.
12:40 a.m.: For the first time all evening, Foster drops from second - all the way down to fifth. Now, 199 votes separate him from a seat. We're about halfway there, with about 47 percent reporting. De la Torre and Mechur are still battling it out, both with a little more than 16 percent of the vote.
12 a.m.: One more precinct reporting puts de la Torre over Mechur for 4th, but just barely. De la Torre sits at 15.90% with 3,479 votes, and Mechur close behind at 15.86% and 3,469. That's 10 votes people. Also, only 62 votes separate 2nd-place Foster (who has slowly but steadily been losing ground all night) from 5th-place Mechur.Also also, Ben Allen has all but locked up his race, so that leaves a 5th seat open that will need to be appointed.
11:40 p.m.: We have a tie, at least for the next 20 minutes until more precincts report in. Mechur and de la Torre both now have 3,311 votes, only 33 away from Richard TJ in third. Did you vote? Because, really, truly, your vote is going to matter.
11:20 p.m.: Top four still remain the same with 20 percent of precincts reporting, though Lieberman is showing a clearer lead, almost 900 votes ahead of 2nd place. De la Torre (4th) and Mechur (5th) are now 37 voters apart.
11 p.m.: Challengers Craig Foster and Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein sit in second and third place respectively, with incumbent Laurie Lieberman in first. The race is close, with Oscar de la Torre, currently fourth, only 43 votes from taking third. Mechur, ahead earlier this evening, has just been nudged out of the top four seats by de la Torre. Only 12 votes separate the two. 12 votes. 12.
Total precincts: 75
PRECINCTS REPORTING: 75 (100%)
Laurie Lieberman*: 20.78%
Craig Foster: 16.66%
Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein: 16.61%
Oscar de la Torre*: 16.12%
Ralph Mechur*: 15.64%
Dhun May: 7.13%
Patty Finer: 7.07%
