UPDATE, 5:14 a.m.: ELECTION NIGHT FINAL REPORT! Bohn Cruises to Easy Victory; Fennell Dips Just Below 50 Percent; Thousands of Ballots Left to Count

There are certainly thousands of late absentee, provisional and conditional ballots left to count, judging by how these things usually work, but there are at least a couple of clear victors.

First District incumbent Rex Bohn has his race in the bag, finishing the evening with nearly 65 percent of the vote to challenger Cliff Berkowitz’s 35 and change. Bohn led both in the early absentee votes and in the precinct vote, and there’s no possible world in which the remaining votes switch the race to Berkowitz.

Bohn’s colleague — incumbent Second District Supervisor Estelle Fennell — is a clear leader over her four challengers, but she dipped just below the required 50 percent cutoff needed to avoid a runoff against second-place challenger Michelle Bushnell. At the moment, she’s just five votes short — out of 5,409 — and so it’s too early to say whether or not we’ll have the first supervisorial runoff election since 2010.

Measure T (the Eureka School District’s bond measure) and Measure R (the Arcata Fire District’s special property tax) are each still short of their required vote. Both seem within reach. We won’t know the final result of these races until the final report is issued, several weeks from now.

Bernie Sanders took Humboldt County easily, with nearly 50 percent of the vote counted so far.

Your school bond measure or etc. not in the table below? Check out the full election night results at this link.

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— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 12:25 a.m.: Third Report! Fennell Climbs, Bohn Maintains Large Lead

So with have 5,948 ballots counted in the First District, incumbent Rex Bohn is basically maintaining his nearly two-to-one lead over challenger Cliff Berkowitz. Reminder: In 2016, 8,432 ballots were cast in this district.

Some scattered precinct votes have come in from the Second District, and Estelle Fennell has climbed up somewhat, more safely into the above-50 percent ratio that will allow her to avoid a November runoff.

Both of the ballot measures we’re tracking have steadily climbed up toward their target numbers for passage, but both are still quite a few votes behind.

Bernie Sanders is, of course, running away with the Humboldt vote. Second and third place — belonging to Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, respectively — are way way back.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 11:06 p.m.: Second Report!

About 900 more votes counted in the First District, but none in the Second District in this second Election Night report.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 9:52 p.m.: Gonna Be a Long Night

The first precinct machines with results only just rolled into Humboldt County Elections HQ within the last 10 minutes, says the Outpost’s Freddy Brewster. 

“As the bay door of the elections office is rolled up a cheer erupts in the office as the first machines of the night are brought in,” Brewster writes.

County Clerk-Recorder Kelly Sanders tells Brewster that they hope to have another report out within the next half-hour. “Everyone is anxious, including me,” Sanders said.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 9:47 p.m.: Fennell ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ at Fortuna Vets Hall Party

There are about 20 people in the side room at the Fortuna Veterans’ Hall, where Second District incumbent Estelle Fennell is having her party. The candidate told the Outpost’s Andrew Goff that there were more people here earlier, but they got tired.

Fennell said she is feeling “cautiously optimistic” about the early returns.

“Right now we’re in a good spot so let’s hope it stays there,” she said.

Fennell added that she has texted First District incumbent Rex Bohn congratulations on his campaign.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 9:31 p.m.: The Scene From the Frontlines: The Berkowitz Election Bash

The Berkowitz Election Results Party is happening at Pachanga Mexicana restaurant in Eureka this evening with right around 20 people in attendance. Chafers full of rice, beans, hot tortillas and assorted meats complimented the four or five salsas spread out across the tables. Cliff Berkowitz, the challenger to incumbent Rex Bohn in District 1, said his spirits and hopes are still high even with the first numbers coming in. 

“The passion is strong and I’ve been out there for months,” Berkowitz told the Outpost.

Berkowitz said the party this evening at Pachanga was for his supporters who have been out on the campaign trail spreading his message. Berkowitz said he probably walked around 100 miles throughout his campaign knocking on doors and thanked his supporters for going places where he couldn’t. 

When asked if he has any post-election plans if things don’t pan out for him Berkowitz said he doesn’t have any as of yet and that he will have to “re-evaluate and see what’s next.”

“I knew it was going to be a tough battle,” Berkowitz said, “but we have heart and a good message. When it’s all said and done, we’ll see if that was enough to overcome a strong incumbency.” 

— Freddy Brewster

UPDATE, 9:07 p.m.:

So how many votes are left to be tallied in the First District and the Second? Impossible to say, but here’s a little look at history.

In 2016, 8,432 ballots were cast in the First District. So far, tonight, 3,936 have been tallied — about 46.7 percent of the 2016 total.

In the Second District, 7,096 votes total were cast. So far, tonight, 3,464 votes have been tallied — about 48.8 percent of the 2016 total.

Of course, in 2016 you had competitive races in both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries, so turnout may have been higher then. In which case we’re seeing an even greater percentage of total votes cast that the above numbers would indicate.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 9:02 p.m.: The Scene From the Frontlines: Savage Henry’s Bernie Party

Democracy Now’s live election night report is blasted up on a large screen from a projector. About 20 people are hanging out in the comedy club sharing stories about why and when they first started to get involved in politics. 

“Massachusetts went for Biden,” someone yelled out from behind a laptop in the back corner of the dimly lit bar. 

Mikey Thoreson, a recent addition to the Humboldt area from San Diego, told the Outpost that he recently got involved in politics and has been canvassing for Senator Bernie Sanders for the past few days. He was at College of the Redwoods earlier today where he helped guide people to the closest voting booths.

“I was hoping that with Klobuchar and Pete dropping out that it would send [Bernie] more of a push,” Thoreson said. “The bigger states are giving him hope.”

Also in attendance was District 5 Supervisor Steve Madrone. Madrone said he is a supporter of Sanders and felt that mainstream networks nationwide call the winner a bit too early. 

“I guess trends are trends,” Madrone said.

When asked about if he has seen any of the recent numbers put out by the County for local races, Madrone said something about Hank not putting out the numbers yet. He then updated the LoCO election results page and said, “Oh, that’s not very good for Berkowitz.” 

When asked if he had a preference on who he wanted to win the District 1 and 2 races, Madrone said he didn’t have one. 

“I gotta work with whoever gets there,” Madrone said. 

— Freddy Brewster

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: (VIDEO) Rex Gives People News That Makes Them Happy

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 8:47 p.m.: Eureka, Arcata Bond & Tax Measures Behind in Early Votes

The Arcata Fire District and the Eureka City Schools could have hoped for better early returns in their respective fundraising measures, but they have reason to hold out hope — especially in Eureka. The early voters trend older, and they are notorious skinflints. These numbers will climb throughout the night, and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see the Eureka City Schools measure eventually get the required 55 percent. 

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 8:35 p.m.: Early Absentee Results Strong For Bohn; Fennell Teeters on the Brink of a Runoff

“A lot more to come, but that’s a pretty good position to be in,” First District incumbent Rex Bohn tells the Outpost’s Andrew Goff at the Bohn campaign party in in the Elks Lodge.

And indeed, although these early absentee ballots do skew conservative, as we talked about this morning, Bohn is sitting pretty with over 2/3 of the vote. It’s going to be difficult-to-impossible for Berkowitz to overcome that in the precinct and late absentee vote.

Meanwhile, down in the Second District, Estelle Fennell is on the knife’s edge, with juuuust barely over 50 percent of the early absentee vote. If the vote ends up over 50 percent when all the ballots have been counted — several weeks from now — then Fennell will have avoided a November runoff. It’s hard to say how these further votes will break, given the wily nature of the five-way race down there.

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 8:22 p.m.: Humboldt County Elections Office — First Report!

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 7:37 p.m.: So Bernie Got Utah

Looks like the West is keeping Bernie Sanders in this thing! He was declared the victor in Utah, but Biden has, at this moment, taken Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.

The big plum, apart from California, is Texas … which is too close to call at this time. Real nail-biter, there!

— Hank Sims

UPDATE, 6:26 p.m.: Sanders Seizes Colorado

Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to take the Rocky Mountain State with 11 percent of the precincts reporting. Back in 2016, Sanders won the state with 59.44 percent of the vote. 

— Freddy Brewster

UPDATE, 6:16 p.m.: Biden Predicted to Win Oklahoma

NPR is calling Oklahoma for former Vice Prez Biden with 60 percent of the precincts reporting. Oklahoma is the birth state of one of his primary opponents, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Biden leads the pack with 36.6 percent of the vote while Sen. Sanders trails with 24.2 percent, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg at 14.9 percent and Sen. Warren at 13.1 percent. 

— Freddy Brewster

UPDATE, 5:53 p.m.: Biden Takes ‘Bama

NPR, CNN and good ol’ Fox News are calling Alabama for Joe Biden with only about 1 percent of precincts reporting. 

— Freddy Brewster

UPDATE, 4:38 p.m.: Biden Does Better in a Bigger ‘V’ State Than Bernie’s

Polls closed at 4 p.m. in Virginia and Vermont, and already all the national media are calling Virginia for Joe Biden and Vermont for Bernie Sanders. Big deal for the Joe-heads!

Next up: 

• 4:30 p.m.: North Carolina
• 5 p.m.: Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, most of Texas
• 5:30 p.m.: Arkansas
• 6 p.m.: Rest of Texas, Minnesota, Colorado
• 7 p.m.: Utah
• 8 p.m.: California

— Hank Sims

The polls at the Jefferson Project earlier today. Photo: Ryan Burns.

They were feeling it at the corner of Broadway and Wabash this afternoon. Photo: Andrew Goff.