Downtown Councilmember Mary Zendejas can officially claim victory in the June 7 primary after Los Angeles County Election officials filed the final vote count Friday showing she had just enough votes to avoid a runoff election in November.
Zendejas (50.25%) led since election night and finished with over 1,100 votes more than the second-place candidate, Mariela Salgado, but local election rules require candidates to finish with over 50% of the vote to win outright. The county said it will certify the results Friday afternoon.
Zendejas has served as the 1st District City Council representative since winning a 2019 special election. She will be joined by incumbent Councilmember Roberto Uranga who also won his primary race to continue representing West Long Beach over the next four years.
Three other City Council races and the mayor’s race were not decided in the primary and will head to November.
Friday’s update showed no large changes from the last few releases of votes from the county. Councilmember Rex Richardson (44%) finished seven percentage points ahead of Councilmember Suzie Price (37%) in the race to become the city’s next mayor.
The 3rd District runoff race will have Kristina Duggan (22%) matched up against Kailee Caruso (20%), who finished less than 100 votes ahead of the third-place finisher, Nima Novin (20%).
Recounts are only initiated by the Long Beach City Clerk if the vote total between the top two vote-getters is less than 50 votes and less than 0.5%, but that doesn’t stop individual candidates from requesting one. However, the city only pays for automatic recounts spelled out in the city’s election ordinance.
Other seats that will be decided in November are the 5th and 9th District seats. Megan Kerr (48%) and Ian Patton (31%) maintained their positions since election night in their bid to represent the new East Long Beach district that includes parts of Bixby Knolls and Virginia Country Club.
The city’s northernmost district will see Joni Ricks-Oddie (49%) and Ginny Gonzales (23%) continuing their campaigns for the 9th District seat.
The three other citywide races are also now officially over with Dawn McIntosh (City Attorney) and incumbent City Prosecutor Doug Haubert and incumbent City Auditor Laura Doud all winning in the primary.
The county’s final tally showed that just over 28% of registered voters cast a ballot in this election. About 25% of Long Beach voters participated in the June 7 primary.