MENDOCINO CO., 11/3/26 — Eric Hart leads Buffey Wright Bourassa in the race for the District 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors, and all three incumbents lead in both the Ukiah and Fort Bragg city council races, according to the first results the Mendocino County elections office posted Tuesday night. All vote counts are preliminary.
The report, run at 8:07 p.m., counts 17,494 mail ballots returned before Election Day. That’s 32.27% of the county’s 54,217 registered voters. None of the county’s 258 precincts had been counted. Later reports will add ballots cast at polling places Tuesday and mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday that arrive by Nov. 10.
Supervisor, District 3
Hart has 1,394 votes, or 54.41%, to Bourassa’s 1,168, or 45.59%, with 2,562 ballots counted in the district. Both live in Willits.
The two are in a runoff for the seat Supervisor John Haschak has held since 2019. Haschak announced he would not seek reelection last December. In the June 2 primary, Bourassa finished first with 1,497 votes and Hart second with 1,447, 50 votes apart, in a four-way race. The district covers Willits, Brooktrails, Laytonville, Covelo and Round Valley.
Ukiah City Council
Eight candidates are running for three seats. Juan V. Orozco leads with 1,166 votes, followed by Mayor Susan Sher with 1,141 and Mari Rodin with 1,121. All three are incumbents. John Strangio is fourth with 1,107, 14 votes behind Rodin. Robert Bazzani has 1,017, Matt Froneberger 946, Sean K. White 700 and Mia L. Uribe 293.
In October, a political committee based in Escondido, in San Diego County, paid for mailers against the three incumbents over a 2024 vote that raised council pay from $490 to $850 a month. The committee reported a $5,000 contribution from Ukiah business owner Ross Liberty three days before it paid for the mailers.
Fort Bragg City Council and Measure B
Eight candidates are running for three seats. Jason Godeke leads with 866 votes, or 24.11%. Marcia Rafanan has 637 and Tess Albin-Smith 605. All three are incumbents. Mary Rose Kaczorowski has 544, Scott J. Mayberry 504, Mary Ann Schmidt 197, Richard Ulveling 126 and Levi W. Cooke 113.
Measure B, a $50-a-year parcel tax for Fort Bragg fire equipment, has 978 yes votes, or 75.7%, to 314 no. It needs two-thirds to pass. The tax would run 10 years and raise about $123,900 a year, by the city’s estimate. Fort Bragg voters approved earlier versions in 1983, 1994, 2004 and 2014.
Willits school board and City Council
Nicole Karkar leads the four-way race for three seats on the Willits Unified School District board with 1,393 votes. Incumbents Jeanne King and Paula Nunez have 1,316 and 1,261. Mason Neil Rescina is fourth with 1,240, 21 votes behind Nunez.
Robin Leler has 499 votes and Sherrie Ebyam 492 for two seats on the Willits City Council. They were the only two candidates and will advance to the council.
County and Ukiah Unified school boards
Marilyn Puget, the incumbent, leads Craig Perry 1,474 to 1,078 for the Trustee Area 1 seat on the Mendocino County Board of Education.
Beatriz “Bea” Arkin, the incumbent, leads Gabriel Baca Meza 669 to 241 for the Trustee Area 1 seat on the Ukiah Unified School District board.
Point Arena and Measure C
Joshua Karlin Resnick has 53 votes and Barbara Burkey, the incumbent and mayor, 48 votes for two seats on the Point Arena City Council. They were the only two candidates.
Measure C, which raises the city’s hotel and vacation rental tax from 12% to 14% starting April 1, 2027, has 46 yes votes to 17 no. It needs a majority. The city estimates it would raise about $35,833 more a year.
Coast Life Support District, Measure D
Among Mendocino County voters, Measure D has 673 yes votes, or 73.31%, to 245 no. The measure raises the ambulance district’s parcel tax to $101 per unit of benefit, or $303 a year for a single-family home, with annual inflation increases. It needs two-thirds to pass. The district runs from Irish Beach south into Sonoma County, and Sonoma County voters in the district also decide it.
Potter Valley Irrigation District
Jarred Hildebrand leads Steven Giuntini, the appointed incumbent, 123 to 35 for the Division 4 seat.
Measures from neighboring districts
Measure AB, the Sonoma County Junior College District’s $830 million bond, has 559 yes votes to 318 no among the Mendocino County voters who live in the district. It needs 55% across Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino counties.
Measure K, a $25 million bond for a new hospital in Garberville, has 11 yes votes and 15 no among the 26 Mendocino County voters in the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District. The district is based in Humboldt County and reaches into northern Mendocino County.
How the county voted in state and federal races
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has 11,842 votes in the county, or 69.3%, to Republican Steve Hilton’s 5,247 for governor.
In the 1st Congressional District, which covers the inland county, Democrat Mike McGuire has 6,452 votes, or 62.64%, to Republican James Gallagher’s 3,848. In the 2nd District, which covers the coast, Democrat Jared Huffman has 5,544, or 80.56%, to Republican Robin Littau’s 1,338.
Damon Connolly, a Democrat, has 70.06% of the county’s vote for state Senate against Republican Tief Gibbs. Assemblymember Chris Rogers, a Democrat, has 69.95% against Republican Michael Greer.
In the two races between Democrats, Jane Kim has 56.15% to Ben Allen’s 43.85% for insurance commissioner, and Sally J. Lieber has 65.53% to John Pimentel’s 34.47% for the Board of Equalization. Richard Barrera has 59.83% to Sonja Shaw’s 40.17% for superintendent of public instruction.
State propositions, as Mendocino County voted
Two measures are close in the county. Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on taxpayers with assets over $1 billion, with the money going mainly to healthcare, has 8,685 yes votes to 8,460 no, or 50.66% to 49.34%. Proposition 5, which would fill the seat of a recalled statewide officer by a later special election or appointment instead of a same-day replacement vote, has 50.87% yes.
Proposition 39, which would require government-issued identification to vote, is failing in the county with 67.98% no. Proposition 44, which would penalize nonprofit community health clinics that spend less than 90% of their revenue on program services, has 88.52% no.
County voters favor the housing bond, Proposition 1, with 65.52% yes, and Proposition 2, which increases the state’s rainy day fund, with 65.59%. Proposition 3, which extends the existing tax on high incomes for schools and healthcare, has 66.78% yes. Proposition 4, which repeals the ban on public funding of campaigns, has 56.67%. Proposition 37, a loan program for middle-income buyers of new homes, has 64.21%, and Proposition 38, bonds for immunology research, has 58.95%.
County voters are against Proposition 41, which would nullify new state taxes kept outside the state spending limit and require audits of programs funded by new special taxes, with 64.1% no. Proposition 42, which would bar new state taxes on personal property and retroactive state taxes, has 56.21% no. Proposition 43, which would raise the vote needed to pass voter-proposed local special taxes from a majority to two-thirds, has 64.96% no. Proposition 45, which would set deadlines for environmental review and lawsuits on certain projects, has 63.88% no.
What comes next
The elections office posts updated counts at mendocinocounty.gov under Current Election Results. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 count if they arrive by Nov. 10.