Some incumbents won't appear on ballot because nobody filed to run against them; they've already 'won' in north Orange County elections

Even before North Orange County voters began marking their mail-in ballots and long in advance of precincts opening for the Nov. 6 election, 24 local incumbents have won their contests because they didn't draw opponents during the four-week summer filing period.

Names of these incumbents will not appear on north county ballots, since no petitions were submitted requesting an election be held for the offices that had no challengers. Each of the incumbents who did file for re-election will be appointed to new terms that start in December.

The canceled contests are in seven elementary school districts, two unified school districts, one community college district and a library district serving all or parts of Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia and Yorba Linda.

Winning incumbents with no opposition in elementary districts are Sam Van Hamblen and Rochelle Smith in Buena Park; Henry Charoen, Art Montez and Connor Traut in Centralia; and Sandra Lee, Donna McDougall and Lydia Sandhi in Cypress.

Others are Chris Thompson in Fullerton; Cynthia Aguirre, Ofelia Hanson and Ida MacMurray in La Habra City; Anastasia Shackelford in Lowell Joint; and Barbara Quintana, Gary Shields and Esther Wallace in Magnolia.

Returning incumbents in unified districts are Nicole Colon and Carrie Flanders in Brea Olinda and Carrie Buck and Karin Freeman in Placentia-Yorba Linda. Returning in the North Orange County Community College District are Steve Blount and Barbara Dunsheath.

And taking new terms as Placentia Library District trustees are Jo-Anne Martin and Al Shkoler.

Among other election-related items:

--Last day to register to vote is Oct. 22. Registrations are taken at city halls or at the Registrar of Voters office, 1300 S. Grand Ave., Building C, Santa Ana. New citizens can register through Nov. 6 at the Santa Ana office, along with special-circumstance “conditional” registrations.

Residents can also register, change party, address or name on-line at ocvote.com. Click on “registration” for the options, including one allowing voters to verity their current registration. Vote-by-mail applications are available from the registrar's office Oct. 9-30.

The registrar begins processing vote-by-mail ballots Oct. 23, but results aren't released until Nov. 6. Go to ocvote.com and click on “results” after 8 p.m. to check hourly updates of tallies.

--Deadline to register write-in candidacies is Oct. 23 at the registrar's office. Write-ins can only be cast for non-partisan contests that were not voter-nominated offices in the June 5 primary. Votes cast for write-in candidates won't be counted for non-registered individuals.

--A CD of permanent vote-by-mail voters who have been issued a vote-by-mail ballot can be purchased from the registrar's office Oct. 6 through Nov. 6. Candidates and committees use this data to contact voters by mail or phone to make sure they've returned their ballots.