LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will welcome two new members and the Lakeport City Council will have one new member and one reelected incumbent, based on the results of Tuesday's election.
Each council had two seats open, and each had one incumbent seeking reelection.
In Clearlake, a seven-person field formed to pursue the seats up for election, which currently are held by Joey Luiz and Jeri Spittler.
Luiz was seeking a second term, while Spittler had chosen instead to challenge longtime District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith for his seat on the Board of Supervisors. Voters returned Smith to the board on Tuesday.
Tuesday night's preliminary results – including early absentee tallies and a count of all nine precincts – put Bruno Sabatier in first place, with 837 votes, or 25.7 percent of the vote, followed by Russell Perdock, who received 663 votes, or 20.4 percent.
Finishing out of the running were Luiz, 569 votes, 17.5 percent; Andre Williams, 484 votes, 14.9 percent; Quincy Jackson, 302 votes, 9.3 percent; Michael Pesonen, 232 votes, 7.1 percent; and Michael Walton, 170 votes, 5.2 percent.
Perdock thanked voters on Facebook early Wednesday, noting that “it's time to get to work.”
“It was a very good experience and everyone who ran deserves congratulations for sharing their vision & for getting involved,” he wrote, adding his congratulations to Sabatier.
The total vote counts for the Clearlake City Council race are likely to change once the final canvass is completed, although placements are not expected to be different once the count is certified.
In Lakeport it was the seats held by Stacey Mattina and Tom Engstrom – both in their first term – that were on the fall ballot.
While Engstrom announced early this year that he didn't intend to seek a second term, Mattina chose to run again.
Mireya Gehring Turner and Robert Michael Balentine both joined the race in the summer.
Based on the early absentee count and the four Lakeport precincts, Tuesday night's preliminary results had Mattina and Turner in a statistical dead heat.
Both women received 37.5 percent of the vote, with 579 ballots cast for Turner and 578 cast for Mattina.
Balentine finished in third place with 386 votes, or 25 percent, according to the returns.
Turner thanked Lakeport's voters on her Facebook page Tuesday night, noting, “my mind and heart are a jumble of gratitude, excitement, weariness and staggering sense of responsibility. I will do my very best to be an asset to our awesome city. Thank you. Wow, thank you.”
The Registrar of Voters Office now must complete the official canvass to finalize the election numbers, a process which takes about 28 days.
The finalized count – which will include remaining provisional and absentee ballots – will then be sent to the Board of Supervisors next month for certification.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
FALL 2014 COUNCIL ELECTIONS: Clearlake elects Perdock, Sabatier; Lakeport returns Mattina, elects Turner
- Elizabeth Larson
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