Palm Springs council incumbents maintain commanding leads as vote counting continues

With multiple rounds of ballots now counted, the picture has solidified in races for the Palm Springs City Council, local school and healthcare boards, and seats representing the Coachella Valley in Congress and the State Legislature.

Returns released Wednesday evening show Palm Springs City Council incumbents Grace Garner and Ron deHarte still holding commanding leads in their re-election bids, while several other contests, including one of two Palm Springs Unified school board races, were considerably closer. Ballots are still being counted, and the results remain unofficial.

In District 1, Garner has the lead over Donald Soja, 1,662 votes to 552 — a 75% to 25% advantage.

In District 3, deHarte leads challenger Charlie Brown with 1,672 votes to Brown’s 744, a 69% to 31% advantage.

Jeffrey Bernstein, representing District 2, ran for re-election unopposed.

In the race for the 47th Assembly District, Republican incumbent Greg Wallis is challenged by Democrat Leila Namvar. According to the last update, Namvar continues to lead by a comfortable margin with 56% of the vote (62,374 votes) compared to Wallis with 44% (49,290).

The 48th Congressional District is one of the most competitive races in the state. Last year, voters approved a redistricting plan that placed Palm Springs in yet another newly formed district. There is technically no incumbent for the seat and the two candidates currently hold office near San Diego.

In that race, Republican Jim Desmond is running against Democrat Marni von Wilpert, who leads with 60% of the vote (92,924) to 40% (63,015 votes) as of the last update.

Riverside County Measure A, which asks voters whether to continue an existing half-cent sales tax for traffic relief and road repair, has passed with 70% approval.

Three seats are up for election on the Desert Healthcare District Board of Directors. In Zone 1, representing a portion of Palm Springs, David “Jax” Kelly is running against Ted Stoner and C.J. Tobe. Kelly now leads Tobe, 9,247 votes (49%) to 6,280 (33%). Stoner has 3,384 votes (18%).

Three seats on the Palm Springs Unified School District board were on the ballot. Six candidates competed for two seats, while Karen Cornett ran unopposed in Trustee Area 3.

In Trustee Area 4, incumbent Charlie Ervin Jr. is losing to former superintendent Tony Signoret, who has a 4,529-3,468 vote lead (57% to 43%).

In Trustee Area 5, four candidates are running: Yolanda C. Bouzas, Kaden Cross, Quana Hall-Beverly and Roger V. Nuñez. In a very tight race, Nuñez leads the pack with 35% of the vote (1,085 votes), followed by Hall-Beverly with 32% (1,005 votes). Cross has 17% of the vote (537) and Bouzas 15% (483).

A complete tally of the votes often takes weeks. The county has 30 days to certify election results and in early December must send one complete copy of the general election returns to the California Secretary of State in an electronic format.

The next updated results will be posted by 6 p.m. Thursday.

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Editor’s note: This story is ongoing and will updated as new vote totals are released. To track all the city races (and those throughout the county), head to this website. You can follow the State Assembly District 47 race here and follow the 48th Congressional District race here.

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