Three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, the Redwood City council race is at last decided.
On social media today, candidate Rick Hunter publicly congratulated Giselle Hale, Diane Howard and Diana Reddy for winning the three open seats in the all-mail ballot election that saw both significant voter turnout and a lengthy ballot-processing period (as explained in more depth by Climate columnist Mark Simon here.)
As of Monday night’s release of results, Hale remained the top-vote getter with 12,708 votes, followed by Howard with 11,892. The race for the third and final seat remained undetermined until yesterday, when Hunter conceded he would not be able to catch up to Reddy in the vote count. As of Monday, Reddy had 11,300 votes over Hunter’s 10,970.
“While the results are not final, after the release of numbers yesterday afternoon, it is clear that I cannot gain enough votes from the few remaining ballots not yet counted (out of the total 30,000 ballots cast) to make up the 330 votes separating me from third place,” Hunter stated in a social media post.
Hunter said he’s proud of his campaign and is committed to achieving its goals that include balanced city decision-making and affordable housing. He also lauded an “extraordinarily high” turnout for the Nov. 6 election.
“As of yesterday, about 75-percent of the 41,000 registered voters in Redwood City cast ballots,” he said, adding the nearly 70,000 votes cast (voters can choose up to three candidates) far eclipsed the about 31,000 votes cast in the most recent City Council election in 2015.
To read Hunter’s full statement, go here.
