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.