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11:15pm: Borgioli holds narrow lead
With “100 percent” of precincts reporting results, Gino Borgioli is ahead of incumbent Larry Carr in the race for Morgan Hill City Council District A, according to the registrar of voters office.
As of 11pm, Borgioli is ahead of the five-term councilmember by 98 votes, with 1,322 of the ballots. Carr has received 1,224 votes in the council race. Julie Raia, a family therapist and political newcomer, has received 752 votes in the District A race, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office.
Borgioli is a former trustee on the Morgan Hill Unified School District board of education. He served one four-year term on the board starting in 2014, and ran unsuccessfully for the county board of education in 2018.
In other local races, City Councilmember Rene Spring continues to lead in the vote count for Council District C; and Ivan Rosales Montes remains ahead of Pam Torrisi in the MHUSD Trustee Area 5 race.
Steve Chappell has received 777 votes as a write-in candidate for mayor. Incumbent Rich Constantine has garnered 11,217 votes for reelection as of 11pm, according to the registrar’s website.
With the Tuesday evening results, Constantine is on his way to his second term as Morgan Hill’s mayor.To view all the latest results in local elections, visit the ROV results page.
9:50pm: Water, open space, Caltrain favored
Local tax measures that would fund water and flood protection-related projects, open space preservation and Caltrain are winning handily with early election results tallied so far by election officials.
Measure S—a parcel tax that would continue to fund Valley Water’s Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection program—is winning with about 77 percent of the votes counted so far. The measure requires a two-thirds majority for approval.
If approved, Measure S could raise up to $45.5 million annually for capital projects that improve the valley’s drinking supply and flood protection. These projects include $54.1 million for Anderson Dam; $46.3 million for Upper Llagas Creek; $10 million for the Pacheco Reservoir expansion; $9.8 million for pipeline improvements and upgrades; and $38.7 million for encampment cleanup, among many other projects, according to Valley Water.
Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority’s Measure T is also winning by a sizable margin as of 9pm. About 89 percent of votes cast so far are in favor of Measure T, a $24 parcel tax that would protect and preserve undeveloped and natural open spaces throughout the valley. Measure T also requires a two-thirds majority.
Holding a commanding lead in three counties is Measure RR, a one-eight cent sales tax that would raise up to $100 million annually for the next 30 years to fund Caltrain operations and improvements. The measure was proposed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, and was thus on the ballot in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties on Nov. 3.
As of 9pm, Measure RR is ahead of the two-thirds majority required to win in all three countiese: 69 percent in Santa Clara, 75 percent in San Francisco and 73 percent in San Mateo.
9:35pm: Nail-biter in Council District A
The race for Morgan Hill City Council District A remains a nail-biter, with Gino Borgioli holding a narrow lead with 33 percent of the ballots counted so far.
As of 9pm, Borgioli and incumbent Larry Carr hold about 39 and 38 percent of the votes counted, respectively. Julie Raia has received about 23 percent of the votes counted, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters website.
Carr is running for his sixth consecutive term on the city council.
In the election for city council District C, incumbent Rene Spring still holds a comfortable lead over Juan Miguel Morris-Munoz, with about 72 percent of the ballots counted as of 9pm.
And in the race of Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Area 5, Ivan Rosales Montes maintains a strong lead with about 62 percent of the votes. Pamela Torrisi has about 38 percent.
County election officials will continue counting ballots well into the evening. Check back here and at the ROV website for more results later.
9:20pm: Lofgren leads big
Zoe Lofgren appears headed to a 14th consecutive term in Congress based on early results.
As of 8:43pm, the Democratic San Jose congresswoman garnered 77.4 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Justin James Aguilera for California’s District 19 seat on the House of Representatives.
The 19th District covers most of Santa Clara County, including all of Morgan Hill and parts of Gilroy.
John Laird leads Vicki Nohrden for the State Senate 17th District seat in the first round of reporting, early unofficial results show.
Laird, a Democrat, had 69.6 percent of the votes, while Nohrden garnered 30.4 percent.
The 17th District encompasses Gilroy and Morgan Hill, as well as all of Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties and parts of Monterey County.
8:20pm: Early count shows Borgioli, Spring, Montes in lead
The first wave of local election results posted to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters site shows incumbent City Councilmember Larry Carr is in a close race with Gino Borgioli, who is currently leading the vote tally with about 39 percent of ballots counted so far.
Borgioli, a former Morgan Hill Unified School District trustee, leads the three-person race for Council District A with 1,144 of the votes counted so far, according to the ROV website. Carr has about 38.6 percent, or 1,129 votes. Julie Raia has about 22.4 percent, or 655 ballots.
The ballot count is still in the early stages, with the next results to be posted at 9pm. The results posted just after 8pm, when polls closed, reflect ballots cast by mail and in drop boxes before election day, according to the registrar’s office.
In the race for Morgan Hill City Council District C, incumbent Rene Spring is in a comfortable lead with about 72 percent of votes counted. Challenger Juan Miguel Munoz-Morris has about 28 percent of the votes so far.
Morgan Hill Mayor Rich Constantine has a commanding lead against write-in candidate Steve Chappell. Constantine, the only candidate who qualified to have his name on the ballot, has received about 94 percent of votes counted. Chappell has received 668 write-in votes so far, according to the registrar’s website.
And in the election for Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee Area 5, Ivan Rosales Montes leads the vote count so far with about 62 percent, or 1,538 votes cast. Pamela Torrisi has received 928 counted votes so far. There is no incumbent in the race.
To see all local results for every race on the Nov. 3 ballot, visit the ROV results website.
Polls close in 30 minutes
The polls are still open until 8pm in Santa Clara County, as results for the Presidential election trickle in from across the country.
The county Registrar of Voters office will begin posting local results on its website shortly after 8pm. Click here to go directly to the local results page.
In Morgan Hill, voters today will elect the city’s mayor and councilmembers for districts A and C. Incumbent Larry Carr faces Gino Borgioli and Julie Raia in District A, while incumbent Rene Spring is running for reelection against Juan Miguel Munoz-Morris in District C.
Incumbent Mayor Rich Constantine is the only name on the ballot for mayor’s seat, but write-in candidate Steve Chappell has waged a late campaign for the office in recent weeks.
A staggering 710,750 voters have already cast their ballot either by mail or in person at one of the vote centers today, according to ROV spokeswoman Bee Lor.
A total of 1,019,309 people are registered to vote in the county, putting the current voter turnout at nearly 70 percent.
During the 2016 general election, 724,596 out of 875,175 registered voters cast their ballots, making it the second-highest election in terms of voter turnout with 82.8 percent.
Check back later for local results in the Nov. 3 election.
4:15pm: Rally on Burnett overpass
Supporters of President Donald Trump have begun gathering on the Burnett Avenue overpass on U.S. 101 in north Morgan Hill.
The overpass has regularly attracted large gatherings of Trump supporters in recent weeks. A man who started the Nov. 3 gathering about 3:20 said there were more than 200 Trump voters on the overpass one afternoon last week.
Hollister resident Fred George arrived minutes later with an American flag and several large banners depicting the president’s name flying from his pickup truck. George said he has attended numerous Trump rallies and gatherings at the Morgan Hill overpass in recent months.
George said he supports Trump because “it’s a sad, sad place we’ve come to in this country.”
“I’m trying to get my president reelected, and stop the flow of liberal politics in California,” George said. “I was born and raised conservative.”
1:40pm: Breaking records
As it has across the state, early voter turnout and ballot returns in Santa Clara County have set records. As of Tuesday morning, 687,265 ballots were cast in Santa Clara County, according to elections officials. That compares with 349,042 at the start of Election Day in the 2016 Presidential General Election.
Polling closes at 8pm.
Election results will be available at sccvote.org. The first results with preliminary Vote by Mail ballot tallies will be online shortly after voting ends at 8pm.The Registrar of Voters’ Office will post updated results on its website at Election Results and on its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages twice daily, at 10am and at 5pm through the week of the election. After the week of the election, results will be updated daily at 5pm. Included in the daily updates are ballots such as provisional and damaged and/or unreadable ballots.
1pm: Smooth at the vote centers
Erika Cisneros, a volunteer poll observer with the Asian Law Alliance, said she hasn’t seen any major issues at the Morgan Hill vote centers she has visited so far today.
The Times ran into Cisneros at the Maple Leaf RV Park vote center Nov. 3 on Monterey Road in south Morgan Hill. She said she and other independent volunteers are out checking for the polling places’ compliance with the American Disabilities Act, Covid-19 guidelines and election laws.
“There haven’t been any issues at any of the sites I’ve been to,” Cisneros said. She spent the day Nov. 2 observing vote centers in Gilroy checking for the same compliance measures.
At another local vote center—Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church—lead election official Robert Santos said both in-person and dropoff voting has proceeded smoothly all day. As of 12pm, Santos said more than 100 voters had stopped by the vote center on Nov. 3.
11:30am: An election message from police
Although there are no known specific election-related threats of violence or property destruction in Morgan Hill, law enforcement authorities are advising residents to report any suspicious behavior on Election Day.
Morgan Hill Police and the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center on Nov. 2 issued the following “unified message” to describe their role in providing public safety during the election:
Although we have no known threats at this time, we are asking for the public’s assistance with addressing crime and threats in our community from those that may be planning violence or attempting to disrupt the election. Public safety measures can only be effective when they involve strong collaboration between law enforcement and the communities that we serve. All federal, state and local public safety and election officials are united in efforts to make this election safe.
One of our efforts relates to suspicious activity reporting, a concept in which law enforcement and homeland security leaders have partnered with communities to create a strategy that unifies the work of agencies and organizations in identifying and sharing information reasonably indicative of preoperational planning associated with terrorism or other criminal activity, while protecting privacy, civil rights and civil liberties.
Law enforcement, homeland security and elections professionals, want to ensure that the public understands how to report suspicious activity to their local law enforcement agency related to the elections. We also want to ensure that all law enforcement agencies understand the process for the collection, analysis, and submission of suspicious activity reports to the NCRIC and the FBI. With your help, law enforcement will have the ability to identify and stop potential threats of violence in your community.
REPORTING SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES OR THREATS OF VIOLENCE:
The public should contact law enforcement via 9-1-1 when an immediate response is needed regarding suspicious activity for any type of crime, including terrorism. Your local law enforcement agency will share your reporting with the NCRIC and FBI.
We are asking the public to call 9-1-1 if they see any of the following suspicious behavior:
• Breach/Attempted Intrusion
Unauthorized personnel attempting to enter or actually entering a restricted area, secured protected site, or nonpublic area. Impersonation of authorized personnel (e.g., police/security officers, janitor, or other personnel).
• Misrepresentation
Presenting false information or misusing insignia, documents, and/or identification to misrepresent one’s affiliation as a means of concealing possible illegal activity.
• Theft/Loss/Diversion
Stealing or diverting something associated with a facility/infrastructure or secured protected site (e.g., badges, uniforms, identification, emergency vehicles, technology, or documents {classified or unclassified}), which are proprietary to the facility/infrastructure or secured protected site.
• Sabotage/Tampering/Vandalism
Damaging, manipulating, defacing, or destroying part of a facility/infrastructure or secured protected site.
• Cyber Attack
Compromising, or attempting to compromise or disrupt an organization’s information technology infrastructure.
• Expressed or Implied Threat
Communicating a spoken or written threat to commit a crime that will result in death or bodily injury to another person or persons or to damage or compromise a facility/infrastructure or secured protected site.
• Weapons Collection/ Discovery
Collection or discovery of unusual amounts or types of weapons*, including explosives, chemicals and other destructive materials, or evidence, detonations or other residue, wounds, or chemical burns, that would arouse suspicion of terrorism or other criminality in a reasonable person.
* This activity is not inherently criminal behavior and is a constitutionally protected activity that must not be documented by law enforcement in a suspicious activity report that contains personal identifying information (PII), unless there are articulable facts or circumstances that clearly support the determination that the behavior observed is not innocent, but rather reasonably indicative of pre-operational planning associated with terrorism or other criminal activity.
Race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity must not be considered as factors for reporting (but attributes may be shared in specific suspect descriptions for identification purposes only).
Wasserman: ‘Your vote matters’
Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who represents South County on the board of supervisors, issued the following Election Day statement this morning:
I have heard it too many times: “My one vote doesn’t make a difference.” This statement is simply not true. In Santa Clara County alone, several recent races were so close that they triggered recounts, including one race that was decided by a two-vote margin!
The 2000 presidential election was one of the most contentious and closest in American history. After 105,421,423 ballots were cast, George W. Bush lost the popular vote by 543,895, but won the electoral college with 271 votes to Al Gore’s 266.
Looking further back, the 1876 presidential election was marred by allegations of voter fraud, voter suppression and threats of violence. It became the longest and most controversial election up to its time and threatened to tear apart the country. Finally, on March 2, 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by some 250,000 votes but won the electoral college by a single vote!Your vote matters.
Please return your ballot at any of the county’s 98 drop boxes today or visit a vote center to participate. It is our duty and our right to pick our representatives. Results will become available after 8:00 pm.
8:30am: City Hall bustling with voters
The vote center at Morgan Hill City Council meeting chambers is already bustling with balloters. Election volunteers on site said a line had already formed outside before they opened at 7am Nov. 3.
As electors are faced with voting during a pandemic, the vote centers are equipped with plenty of hand sanitizer and protocols to ensure pens, voting machines and other surfaces that might be touched by multiple people are frequently sanitized. Masks are required inside the voting centers, but election officials can make outdoor accommodations for voters who cannot wear face coverings.
There are 99 vote centers open throughout Santa Clara County until 8pm. Voters who reside in any precinct can drop off their ballot or vote at any county vote center.
Four of these vote centers, including the 17555 Peak Ave. council building, are in Morgan Hill: Ann Sobrato High School, 401 Burnett Ave.; Maple Leaf RV Park, 15200 Monterey Road; Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church.
There are also four ballot drop box locations in Morgan Hill, where voters can leave their completed ballots: Morgan Hill City Clerk’s Office, 17575 Peak Ave.; Morgan Hill Library, 660 West Main Ave.; Morgan Hill Unified School District headquarters, 15600 Concord Circle; and Nordstrom Elementary School, 1425 East Dunne Ave.
Election Day is here
Election Day is here, and the Morgan Hill Times will be posting live election updates throughout the day (and night).
We’ll be updating this post frequently with election-related news, photos, reactions, results and any other tidbits we can find.
Morgan Hill voters will choose two council members, a Morgan Hill Unified School District trustee, and other races. Other uncontested local races will appear on the ballot, as well as national, state and regional choices. Mayor Rich Constantine is the only name on the ballot for the mayor’s race, but local social media admin Steve Chappell is a qualified write-in candidate.
As of Oct. 30, 1,022,243 voters are registered in Santa Clara County, according to the Registrar of Voters’ Office.
As it has across the state, early voter turnout and ballot returns in Santa Clara County have set records. As of Oct. 29, 511,326 ballots have been cast in Santa Clara County. That compares with 260,991 at the same point in time before the 2016 Presidential General Election.
“Just a couple of weeks ago we broke a record for reaching the one million registered voters mark in Santa Clara County, now we’re seeing a record number of ballots being returned early,” said Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey. “It is exciting to know that there are so many voters in Santa Clara County—whether brand-new voters or longtime voters or somewhere in between—who are eager and excited to be part of the democratic process.”
Keep checking this post frequently for updates.
