After days without any new votes added to the totals for the Palm Springs City Council races in districts 1, 2, and 3, the votes added Wednesday evening have completely changed the picture in one of those races.
Mayor Pro Tem Grace Garner now leads challenger Scott Nevins by 50 votes, 1,400 to 1,350 (51% to 49%) in the District 1 race. She had been shown as trailing by 56 since Saturday, the last time any votes in the city races had been tallied by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. Prior to the vote count stalling, Garner had consistently been closing a 177-vote Election Day gap.
As of the last report Wednesday evening, 77,000 ballots — both vote-by-mail and provisional — remained to be counted in Riverside County. The next update is promised for Thursday evening.
In another closely-watched race for city voters, Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege currently leads Republican challenger Greg Wallis in the race for the State Assembly in the 47th District. She has a 77,173 to 75,934 lead and continues to be ahead by roughly 1%.
There was no change in leaders in the other Palm Springs City Council races, where no incumbent was running. Jeffrey Bernstein continues to lead Renee Brown in the District 2 race, 1,939 votes to 1,599 (55% to 45%). In District 3, Ron deHarte leads Joy Meredith 1,888 to 1,023 (65% to 35%).
Holstege is midway through her second term on the City Council as the District 4 representative. Should she win a seat in Sacramento, it would create a vacancy that would be filled by either a special election or an appointment. So far, four people have stepped up to say they would like to fill a potential vacancy.
The 47th District is new and includes only the western end of the Coachella Valley. It contains much of what was the 42nd District, a Republican stronghold for many years. Palm Springs is currently represented by Assemblymember Chad Mayes, who chose not to run for re-election in the new district. Wallis has worked for Mayes for the past seven years.
You can track the latest vote counts for the 47th District here, and track the Palm Springs City Council races here.
