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• Who’s Running for Blue Lake City Council? Four Candidates Will Jostle For Two Seats

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Election night results show an extremely tight race for the two open seats on the Blue Lake City Council. The future makeup of the five-member council is still up in the air.

Leading the pack is Charis Bowman, a bespoke furniture artist and a director of the Blue Lake Chamber of Commerce, who has received 96 votes of the 369 votes tallied thus far.

But this is only seven votes ahead of the person with the fewest votes, incumbent Elise Scafani.

“We’ll see how that goes with it being so close, and potentially just a few ballots make a difference,” said Bowman.

“So, I’m definitely not counting the chickens yet, as they say.”

She said the split in votes shows how divided Blue Lake is, with people grouping Bowman together with candidate (and former mayor) Adelene Jones, and incumbent councilmember Scafani with newcomer Verda Pitts.

Bowman and Jones were each proponents of a 2025 failed recall effort targeting three council members, including Scafani. Scafani, meanwhile, previously endorsed Pitts, calling her “the most positive candidate.”

Bowman said her aim is to be able to listen to all voices.

“As a council, we shouldn’t be a clique,” she said.

“It should be representative of all people and from all different sides. And I think sometimes healthy debate and looking at issues from different angles is healthy for our community. And I’m not there to be part of a rubber stamp, but I’m also there to help and heal this community, and to listen to our constituents, and that’s the most important thing to me.”

Right now, Pitts follows her in second place, but only by three votes.

Blue Lake, with a population of just about 1,208 people, saw an exact tie for a council seat in the 2024 election. This was resolved by pulling an envelope from a box.

In the latest midterm election in 2022, roughly 560 people voted in Blue Lake’s city council election. In a special recall election earlier this year, about 400 people voted.

Councilmembers are sitting on the edge of their seats to find out who will end up on the council.

“I like to see nice clear lines, and there aren’t any,” said Elise Scafani, who agreed with a laugh that the split shows that Blue Lake is divided.

We’ll know more soon. After Election Day, the elections office says to expect unofficial results twice weekly, beginning Thursday, Nov. 5 around 5 p.m. Election results updates will then be distributed every Wednesday and Friday by 5 p.m. until the election is certified on Thursday, Dec. 3.

Scafani said not knowing the results immediately is hard on people, emotionally. With Blue Lake’s small population, winning or losing could come down to a single voter.

“You’re like, ‘Oh, but if I had just talked to that one other person,’ or ‘Oh, if only so-and-so had managed to get their ballot in on time,’” she said.

Scafani, who has been on the council for four years, said she decided to run again only because she wanted to support the current council and city staff, and felt like continuity would be beneficial.

She said a dear friend gave her a hug this week, told her “good luck,” and that they hope she loses.

“They know what a tough, thankless job it’s been,” she said. “You can work hard for the community and get nothing but abuse for it. But I’ve also gotten a lot of support from a lot of good people, and made a lot of good friends along the way. And I think… So. Whether I win or lose, I will be happy with the outcome.”

Read more about local elections here.