Race for Menifee Mayor might not be decided for weeks

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The race for Menifee Mayor tightened even more on Monday, and indications are that the final vote count won’t be completed until well past Tuesday, according to figures released today by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

Lesa Sobek’s lead over Ricky Estrada is now the smallest it has been since the daily updates began on Nov. 5. Sobek, the current District 3 City Council member, leads Estrada by only 276 votes (see official numbers below). Estrada, the current District 2 council member, is attempting to jump into the Mayor’s seat even though he has served only half of his four-year District 2 term.

Tuesday was announced previously as the Registrar’s deadline for counting mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day, as well as vote-by-mail ballots dropped on that day. However, the Registrar has also announced that ballots already received that must be “cured” – such as ballots where the voter’s signature does not match the signature on their voter file – must be resolved as well.

That number could be much larger than most voters realize. On Monday, the Registrar announced that an estimated 130,000 vote-by-mail and 35,000 Conditional Voter Registration ballots throughout Riverside County have not been counted. Technically, election officials have until Dec. 5 to certify the results.

This means that the close races may remain too close to call for days or even weeks.

The other close local race that could be affected by the outstanding votes is for Measure R, the school bond measure sponsored by Menifee Union School District. It requires a minimum of 55 percent “yes” votes to pass, and it currently has 55.77 percent.

Here are the latest numbers on local races:

Menifee mayor:
Lesa Sobek 19,185 votes (44.38%)
Ricky Estrada 18,909 votes (43.74
Dameon Greene 5,134 votes (11.88%)

City Council District 1:
Bob Karwin 6,324 votes (57.94%)
Mark Harkay 4,591 votes (42.06%)

City Council District 3:
Dan Temple 5,910 votes (66.89%)
Felix Montano 1,556 votes (17.61%)
Gene Recor 1,363 votes (15.43%)
Jay Sno-Fly (write-in) 6 votes

Measure R - Bond Measure for Menifee Union School District
Yes 24,793 votes (55.77%)
No 19,662 votes (44.23%)

Measure I - Bond Measure for Romoland School District
Yes 7,373 votes (57.89%)
No 5,364 votes (42.11%)

Director, Valley-Wide Recreation and Park Dist. Area 4
Christopher Carnes 11,833 (52.58%)
Angela Domenigoni Little 10,671 votes (47.42%)

U.S. Representative 41st District
Ken Calvert 153,106 (51.26%)
Will Rollins 144,558 (48.74%)