Mayor Javier Lopez, Councilwoman-elect Cerina Otero and an unopposed Councilman Daniel Martinez have apparently won their races and will be sworn into office next month.

In the updated count released on Friday by the Stanislaus County Elections Division, Lopez led Gary M. Condit by 591 votes in the Ceres mayor’s race. Lopez received 5,939 votes (43.91 percent) to Gary M. Condit’s 5,348 votes (39.54 percent). Trailing in last place is Ceres City Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra with 1,840 votes (16.30 percent).

In the Ceres City Council District 3 race, Councilman Bret Silveira was defeated in his re-election bid. Cerina Otero, a member of the Ceres Planning Commission, collected 2,151 votes (56.5 percent) to Silveira’s 1,656 (43.5 percent).

District 4 Councilman Daniel Martinez was also on the ballot but unopposed and collected 2,278 votes. His wife, City Treasurer Kayla Martinez also had no opponent and was re-elected to another four-year term with 11,190 votes.

On election night Condit held a 60-vote lead over Lopez in the Ceres mayor’s race but the direction of the election changed as the mail ballots continued to be counted.

The elections office reported 964 under votes, which means 964 voters chose not to mark the ballot in the mayor’s race. There were 17 over votes, meaning they voted for two candidates for mayor and both were tossed out. A total of 39rejected write-in votes were cast.

Voter turnout in the mayor’s race was 60.62 percent. Specifically, out of 24,001 registered voters in the city of Ceres, 14,549 ballots were cast.

Lopez said his victory “shows people are voting for who best represents them. Them having confidence in me for another four years is a great responsibility. I don’t want to let anybody down.”

Lopez started campaigning for his re-election bid in March with door-knocking.

Lopez is optimistic about the future of Ceres.

“My goal is to continue the growth of the city the next four years. We have a lot of potential. It’s a team effort. The mayor doesn’t run the entire city alone. It takes the whole council.”

Condit accused the mayor of running a dirty and negative campaign and failing to outline any achievements or vision for the future.

Donna Linder, who is in charge of the Stanislaus County Elections Division, said her workers are now beginning the counting of provisionally voted ballots, and conditional ballots. Also the one percent hand tally of the vote is in progress to verify the accuracy of the automated count.

The vote count doesn’t become official until early next month because of a significant change regarding the certification dates for the General Election due to the enactment of Assembly Bill 3184, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 22.

The new legislation amends the California Elections Code to clarify the deadline for voters to “cure” their vote-by-mail ballots, particularly when there are issues such as missing or mismatched signatures. Under the previous law, voters had until two days prior to the county certification to address these issues. However, with the passing of AB 3184, counties are now prohibited from certifying the election results before December 3, 2024.

Hughson race

In the city of Hughson, Alan McFadon and Susana Vasquez have won two open City Council seats in a five-way race. Up until Friday it was believed that Sam Rush won.

In unofficial results, McFadon received 1,252 votes (28.21 percent) and Susana Vasquez has received 1,010 votes (22.94 percent), edging out Rush who was in second place by eight votes. Rush received 1,002 votes (22.76 percent) to drop into third place and losing. Billy Gonzales collected 658 votes (14.94 percent) and Abel Moran came in last place with 491 votes (11.15  percent).

Congressional races

The race between incumbent Rep. John Duarte (R-Modesto) and Democratic challenger Adam Gray for the 13th District congressional seat is once again going down to the wire.

As of late Tuesday night, Duarte led the former five-term Assemblymember by a mere 227 votes — 100,885 to 100,658. Two years ago, when Duarte won the seat by just 564 votes, the race for the 13th was the second-closest House race in the nation.

“We’ll keep curing ballots on both sides,” said Duarte from his residence in the nation’s capital. “This race is so close that it may end up going to a recount. We just have to stay patient until every vote is counted.”

For months, this race was labeled a toss-up by reputable polling outlets, with a few giving Gray a slight edge in the final weeks of the campaign. For a time, that appeared to be a major miscalculation with Duarte leading by more than 3,000 votes at times. But the lead has continued to dwindle and now Gray is closer than he was two years ago.

The only problem for Gray is he’s running out of daylight.

The 13th district includes all of Merced County and pieces of Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Madera and Fresno counties. While there are still ballots left to process, it’s not clear how many of those ballots are from residents of the 13th district.

Two years ago, in an off-year election, about 135,000 ballots were cast in the district. This year, more than 200,000 ballots have been accounted for.

In Stanislaus County, which is Duarte’s home turf, Gray has nearly a 3,800-vote lead — 53.3% to 46.7%. In Merced County, which is Gray’s home county, the race is a little closer — 51.3% to 48.7% — with Gray ahead by 2,000 votes. In San Joaquin County, though Gray leads by just 1,000 votes, it represents his largest percentage — 53.6 to 46.4.

Conversely, Duarte is dominating Madera County by 4,700 votes — 57% to 43% — and Fresno County by nearly 2,400 votes, with 56.2% of the vote to Gray’s 43.8.

Ever since 2022, when Duarte’s victory contributed to the Republicans’ slim House majority, the 13th has been a target by both parties, which contributed millions to bolster their candidate.

As it stands, the GOP controls 218 House seats, while the Democrats have secured 212. Five seats, including the 13th, remain undecided.

“We’ve got the lead at this point,” said Duarte. “We just have to wait until we’re sure.”

A message to Adam Gray seeking comment was not returned. 

In the 5th Congressional District – which includes most of Modesto and the eastern half of Stanislaus County including Hughson – will continue to be represented by Republican Tom McClintock. The incumbent has thus far collected 213,540 votes (62.0 percent) to the 131,140 votes (38 percent) collected by perennial Democrat candidate Michael “Mike” Barkley of Manteca.

The triangle-shaped northwest corner of Stanislaus County falls within the 9th district, Rep. Josh Harder (D-Tracy) is leading with 51.9 percent of the vote. Democrat Harder, who used to represent Ceres in Congress, has 123,656votes to Republican Lincoln’s 114,684 votes (48.1 percent).

Alanis defeats Self

Voters in the 22nd State Assembly District soundly chose incumbent Republican Juan Alanis, R-Modesto to continue representing them in Sacramento. Alanis defeated Democrat Jessica Self, a public defender who ran unsuccessfully for that office two years ago. Alanis collected 72,852 votes (56.5 percent) to Self’s 56,024 votes (43.5 percent).

The 22nd Assembly district includes Ceres, Keyes, Modesto, Turlock, Empire, Denair, Patterson, Gustine, Newman, Hilmar, Ballico, Snelling, Grayson, Crows Landing, Diablo Grande and Stevinson.

“I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue the hard work my team, and I have been putting in for the past two years,” said Alanis in a social media post the morning after the election.

Ripon Republican Heath Flora won re-election to the 9th Assembly District, which includes eastern Stanislaus County including those living in Hughson. Assemblyman Flora received 119,330 votes (70.1 percent) to the 50,912 votes (29.9 percent) collected by American Independent Party candidate Tami Nobriga, a retired advertising businesswoman and conservative Christian.

YCCD district

In Yosemite Community College District Trustee Area 7, which encompasses Ceres, incumbent board trustee Antonio Aguilar was victorious over challenger M. Geri Vargas of Ceres, a retired executive assistant. Aguilar picked up 11,905 votes (68.51 percent) to Vargas’ 5,473 votes (31.49 percent).

Statewide propositions

Voters in California voted to increase their taxes with the support of Proposition 2 which authorizes the state to borrow $8.5 billion for K-12 schools and $1.5 billion for community colleges for construction and modernization. The measure thus far has the support of 58.4 percent of voters.

Also approved were:

Prop. 3 which will remove outdated language from Proposition 8, passed by voters in 2008, that characterizes marriage as only between a man and a woman. It passes with 62.6 percent in favor.

Voters also approve Prop. 4, a bond issue would allow the state to borrow $3.8 billion for drinking water and groundwater programs, $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest programs and $1.2 billion for sea level rise. In part, the money would offset some budget cuts. Prop 4 has the support of 59.5 percent of voters.

Prop. 34 – Require certain providers to use prescription drug revenue for patients. Sponsored by the trade group for California’s landlords, this measure is squarely aimed at knee-capping the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has been active in funding ballot measures. It had 50.7 percent support.

Prop. 35 – This initiative is sponsored by California’s health care industry to raise more money for Medi-Cal and block lawmakers from using the cash to avoid cuts to other programs. The tax is set to expire in 2026. Prop 35 has 67.8 percent support.

Prop. 36 – This measure — supported by Republicans and law enforcement but opposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and most Democrats — will partly roll back Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014, that turned some felonies into misdemeanors. The measure is in response to an increase in retail theft since Prop. 47 was passed in 2014. This measure had 68.6 percent approval.

Voters rejected Prop 5 – A constitutional amendment that would have made it easier for local governments to borrow money for affordable housing and some other public infrastructure projects by lowering the voter approval requirement from two-thirds to 55%. Right now, 55.3 percent opposed Prop 5.

Californians also were against Prop. 6 as a constitutional amendment that would end forced labor in state prisons. It was defeated with only 46.6 percent support.

Also defeated was Prop 32 to raise the overall minimum wage from $16 an hour and adjust it for inflation. It failed with 50.9 opposed.

Prop 33, the government rent control measure was also defeated with only 39.7 percent approval.

- Joe Cortez contributed to this article.