Here is the most recent in the LoCO’s ever-popular series of post-election voting maps, in which we puzzle and confound local political campaign managers by showing them how their geospatial reading of the county electorate was, once again, all wrong.

The closest race in the Nov. 3 election was also one of the most hotly contested ones — incumbent Harbor District commissioner Pat Higgins was challenged by Susan Rotwein up in the Fifth Division (roughly McKinleyville to Willow Creek and north). Election night ended with Higgins up by just 12 votes; on Friday, the all-but-final count showed that he had won by 82.

As we can see in the map below, McKinleyville — the division’s major population base — was divided ground. Rotwein won most precincts by a small to not-so-small margin, though Higgins held his own west of Central Avenue. Rotwein also picked up wins in Willow Creek and Orick. But Higgins more than made up the difference with victories elsewhere, most notably in Fieldbrook, Westhaven and Trinidad.

Map below.

FIFTH DIVISION — HIGGINS V. ROTWEIN

Meanwhile, the landslide for Greg Dale, Higgins’ incumbent colleague in the Second Division (Fortuna, SoHum), was near-universal. Challenger Nick Angeloff picked up his home town of Rio Dell, but the remainder of the precincts were solid Dale.

SECOND DIVISION — DALE V. ANGELOFF

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