Workers process ballots at the Santa Cruz County Clerk’s Office in June 2022. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)

SANTA CRUZ >> Nearly all election results in Santa Cruz County held as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, except for one seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified school board. Gabriel Medina is ahead of incumbent Oscar Soto for the Area 3 seat. The race includes voters in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

Measure Z, a proposed soda tax in the City of Santa Cruz, leaned toward approval with 51.8% of the vote as of Wednesday. It needs more than 50% of the vote to be adopted.

How long before final election results?

Some Santa Cruz Local readers have asked whether it is normal for vote tallies to take this long. Short answer, yes.

• California law allows county clerks to take up to 30 days to certify election results, making Dec. 5 the deadline. Leaders of the Santa Cruz County Clerk’s Office have said they intend to take the full 30 days, if needed, to ensure an accurate count.
• State law also allows mailed ballots postmarked by Nov. 5 to be received by the county clerk’s office as late as Nov. 12.
• Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber said Tuesday night that they had 3,700 same-day voter registrations and ballots to process and more than 2,100 mail ballots to process. The office has processed more than 129,000 ballots.

What are the latest results?

View all Santa Cruz County election results on Santa Cruz Local’s results page. The page is updated automatically with the most recent tallies. The next update is due at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15. 

The following results include Santa Cruz and Monterey counties as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13.

Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Trustee Area 3 (vote for 1)

• Gabriel Jesse Medina: 1,430 votes (53.1%)
• Oscar Soto: 1,262 votes (46.9%)

Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Trustee Area 2 (vote for 1)

• Carol Turley: 2,853 votes (55.6%)
• Georgia Acosta: 2,247 votes (43.8%)

Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Trustee Area 6 (vote for 1)

• Jessica Carrasco: 2,486 votes (56.8%)
• Adam Bolaños Scow: 1,848 votes (42.2%)

M – Pajaro Valley Unified School District Bond – 55% to pass

• Yes: 20,819 votes (57.2%)
• No: 15,552 votes (42.8%)

Supervisor, 2nd District (vote for 1)

• Kim De Serpa: 12,397 votes (50.9%)
• Kristen Brown: 11,708 votes (48.1%)

Supervisor, 5th District (vote for 1)

• Monica Martinez: 14,678 votes (56.5%)
• Christopher Bradford: 11,225 votes (43.2%)

Scotts Valley City Council (vote for 3)

• Donna Lind: 3,511 votes (22.4%)
• Steve Clark: 2,940 votes (18.8%)
• Krista Jett: 2,828 votes (18.1%)
• Corky Roberson: 1,869 votes (11.9%)
• Mercedes Molloy: 1,631 votes (10.4%)
• John Lewis: 1,557 votes (9.9%)
• Dustin Lopez: 1,281 votes (8.2%)

Capitola City Council (vote for 2)

• Gerry Jensen: 2,688 votes (34.1%)
• Melinda Orbach: 2,248 votes (28.5%)
• Margaux Morgan: 1,520 votes (19.3%)
• Enrique Dolmo Jr.: 1,369 votes (17.4%)

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