Election Over? Whoa Hold Up a Minute-Second Seat Still a Horse Race

Alex Fisch was elected to the Culver City City Council by voters on Tuesday. However with 1548 VBM and Provisional ballots still to be county Daniel Lee's 170 vote lead over Albert Vera could be erased.

Fisch's election was never in doubt Tuesday night, after the first precincts began reporting their tallies. He consistently had a comfortable lead.

Lee lead most of the evening but Vera pulled into the second spot when Culver Crest and Sunkist Park precincts' totals rolled in. However, the final precincts' tallies gave Lee a 170-vote lead.

Guided by state election codes the City Clerk's Office said it will continue to count provisional ballots and absentee ballots postmarked by April 10th and received through April 13th.As of the deadline on Friday, an additional 1,056 VBM ballots that were received at the polls and in the mail have completed signature verification. An additional 176 VBM ballots and 316 provisional ballots have been sent to Los Angeles County for signature verification (a total of 492 ballots).

The city clerk's office released the following statement, "In anticipation of the County completing such verification, the City Clerk's Office has scheduled a second counting session for MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018 at 1:00 PM. All ballots received and signature verified by 11:00 AM on MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018 will be counted at 1:00 PM. The total number of ballots to be counted on that day is subject to the completion of signature

verification by the County of Los Angeles.

Pursuant to a new state law, the City Clerk's Office must allow voters until 5:00 PM on the 8th

day after the election (or April 18) the opportunity to sign their ballot

On Tuesday night, the initial counting of ballots was conducted in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers at City Hall. City Clerk Jeremy green and her staff opened the ballot boxes and processed the ballots in full view of the audience in the chamber and on television. The process ran smoothly with tallies on the screen in the chambers and Green announcing the totals for each precinct as they were counted.

Measure A, the Cannabis Business tax won by a large margin of over 3500 votes.

The unofficial preliminary results are in and updates can be found on the City's website at http://www.culvercity.org/vote

CURRENT TOTALS

Council Candidates:

Alex Fisch – 3,183

Daniel Lee – 2,768

Albert Vera – 2,598

Marcus Tiggs – 1,790

Measure A:

Yes – 4,512

No – 812

The city clerk will present the results to the city council on April 30 for certification and the new members will take the positions of current Mayor Jeff Cooper and Councilman Jim Clark who are retiring due to term limits.

The new council members will assume their posts on April 30, at which time Vice Mayor Thomas Small is expected to be elected Mayor and, under city council policy, Goran Eriksson should be elected Vice Mayor. The mayor's post is largely ceremonial and rotated between the councilmembers each year.

Updated unofficial election results will be posted as it is received on the city website and at http://www.culvercityobserver.com