Yorba Linda ballots still being counted as election winners prepare to take office; Schwing sets record

Hundreds of Yorba Linda ballots remain to be counted before results are certified by a state-imposed Dec. 8 deadline, although this county's elections officials usually have a completed tally within a couple weeks of Election Day.

Most of the yet-to-be counted votes are provisional ballots cast at polling places, vote-by-mail ballots either returned to precincts or received at the registrar's office by mail up to three days after Tuesday's election and paper ballots cast at precincts.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, winners of the three City Council seats will begin four-year terms at the regularly scheduled Dec. 6 meeting, while victors in the water district contests will will be installed at a regularly scheduled Dec. 8 meeting.

Winners of trustee positions in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and the North Orange County Community College District will be sworn in at Dec. 13 meetings. Each winner will receive a “certificate of election” from county officials before a Dec. 9 deadline.

One of the first orders of business at the four installation meetings will be the selection of new officers: mayor and mayor pro-tem for the council; president and vice-president for the water board; and president, vice-president and secretary or clerk for each of the two school boards.

Registration didn't reach Yorba Linda's all-time high of 45,494 who were eligible to cast ballots in 2012. This year's total was 42,621: Republicans dipped to 53.7 percent, Democrats held at 22.2 percent and “no party preference” grew to 20.3 percent. More than 64 percent, 27,420, were issued vote-by-mail ballots.

The council's Dec. 6 organizational meeting will be the last at the dais for record-holder Mark Schwing, who has appeared on a Yorba Linda ballot more times than any other resident since elections were first held in this community, pre- and post-incorporation.

Schwing's 15 ballot appearances include 11 wins and four loses. Five wins were for four-year council terms, with first-place finishes in four. Six wins were for two-year terms on the county Republican Central Committee from 1998 through 2008.

His first council victory was in 1988 – a second place finish – a couple years after moving to the city. He won re-election in 1992 and 1996 before losing by 101 votes in 2000. He again ran in 2002 but lost by three votes. His 2008 and 2012 wins make his 20-year tenure second to Hank Wedaa's 30 years.

Included in his loses were a water district contest in 2004 by 657 votes and a re-election race for a seventh term on the Central Committee in 2010. He brought signed nominating petitions for the 2006 council race to City Hall but decided not to file minutes before the deadline.

The city's three-term limit law for council service, effective after the 1996 election, makes it unlikely Schwing's ballot record will ever be matched. However, he is eligible to serve one more council term.