Political Climate with Mark Simon: Waddell concedes to Magee in tight schools race

Political Climate with Mark Simon: Election update — Magee pulls ahead of Waddell

in Featured/Headline/PoliticalClimate

For the first time in the June 5 election vote count, Nancy Magee has pulled ahead of Gary Waddell in the too-close-to-call race for San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools.

The latest vote count released at 4:30 p.m. today by the county elections office shows Magee with a 428-vote lead, 46,242 to 45,814 for Waddell.

Meanwhile, the outcome of the vote on a parcel tax in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District also remains undecided, but the measure is inching closer to passage. The latest vote count shows the measure with 66.12 percent of the vote. The measure requires two-thirds approval to pass, or one vote more than 66.66 percent.

Based on prior reports from elections officials, as many as another 30,000 ballots remain to be processed, which means the outcome of either race still is undetermined.

Magee, associate superintendent at the County Office of Education, has trailed Waddell, the deputy superintendent, in the vote tallies since the results announcements began at 8 p.m. on election night.

As additional ballots have been processed, she has been steadily gaining. On June 7, she was behind by 501 votes. On Tuesday, the gap had closed to 75 votes.

The ballots being processed now were turned into the county’s drop-off locations throughout the county, and the likelihood is that these ballots were cast by voters who made up their mind late in the campaign.

Evidently, those voters leaned slightly more toward Magee.

Contact Mark Simon at mark@climaterwc.com.