If you followed the Outpost last night, you’ll know that there were plenty of decisive victories — Natalie Arroyo in the Eureka City Council’s Fifth Ward; the GMO-banning Measure P; and Pereira, Wheetley and Pitino for Arcata City Council; sales tax measures in the city of Eureka and the county at large (Measures Q and Z, respectively). There was also a decisive defeat — Measure R, the $12/hour minimum wage for the city of Eureka, went down in flames.

The downticket items from the county’s hinterlands were mostly all resolved, as well. Rio Dell handily passed its own sales tax hike, Measure U (53.2 percent to 46.8 percent). The city of Blue Lake passed Measure T, a tax on utility users (53.6 percent to 46.4 percent). Fortuna shot down both its city sales tax measure (Measure V, 36.5 percent yes to 63.5 percent no) and Measure W, a school bond issue for Fortuna Elementary (56.4 percent no/43.6 percent yes). This election’s SoHum Unified’s school bond measure, Measure X, is looking solid at 64.1 yes, 35.9 percent no, though the tiny number of Mendocino County voters in the district may have humbled this decisive victory somewhat, as they have in elections past.

But there are still lots and lots of votes left to be counted — provisional ballots, absentee and vote-by-mail ballots handed in late in the game — and at least a few candidates and ballot-measure backers are going to be biting their nails for the next few weeks, before the final, official certified report is published.

The 104-vote margin between Eureka CC Ward Three incumbent Mike Newman and challenger Kim Bergel does offer Bergel supporters the tiniest twinkle of hope. A very tiniest twinkle. There’s no need to get into that here, because Thad Greenson at the NCJ woke up early, shook off his hangover and published a detailed running of the numbers at 6:25 a.m. The Outpost finds his work unobjectionable, and so passes it off to you without comment.

Another race in the Eureka area — Measure S, a large bond issue from the Eureka Unified School District — is likewise close, but probably safe. Measure S ended the night with a 55.8 percent to 44.2 percent lead, with a 55 percent supermajority required for passage. The gap is wider than the Newman/Bergel split, and also there is the fact that precinct voters — those who voted at the polls, rather than by mail — swung heavily in favor, and the ironclad Sims Theorem tells us that the votes counted after election night will follow this pattern.

The real squeaker in this election cycle turns out to be Measure Y, a school bond issue in the tiny Jacoby Creek School District. Election night ended with 508 souls voting yes on Y and 420 voting no — 54.74 to 45.26 percent. If that vote stands, Y is toast. But just six more votes in favor would swing Y into the victory column, and precinct voters went for it in much higher numbers than the absentees. It’s strong evidence Jacoby Creek landowners and the school’s administration will have every reason to slowly lose their minds over the coming days and weeks.