Trump Losing Riverside County; Palm Desert Leaders Emerge

Palm Desert CA

17 November, 2020

3:46 PM

Description

PALM DESERT, CA — While thousands of ballots remain to be processed in Riverside County, it's two weeks post-Nov. 3 Election and most races in Palm Desert have very clear leaders. As of Tuesday morning, approximately 45,000 timely postmarked vote-by-mail ballots and 25,000 provisional ballots remain to be processed in the county. Additionally, under state law the Riverside County Registrar of Voters must continue to accept timely postmarked ballots through Friday. While outstanding ballots remain, in Riverside County Joe Biden (D) leads Republican President Donald Trump by nearly 77,000 votes. The current tally is 493,368 ballots cast for Biden and 416,515 for Trump. If the lead holds, Biden may win the 2020 contest by a greater margin than Hillary Clinton (D) did four years ago. In 2016, Clinton beat Trump by just over 60,000 votes. Clinton garnered 373,695 ballots cast or 50.11 percent from county voters compared to 333,243 or 44.68 percent for Trump. Aside from national politics, key races in Palm Desert included city council seats, a Desert Sands Unified School District seat, State Assembly District 42, and Congressional District 36. Here's how those races stand as of Tuesday morning. Palm Desert City Council In District 1 (downtown area), incumbent Susan Marie Weber was being outrun by challenger Karina Ivonne Quintanilla, who had a comfortable lead of nearly 700 votes Tuesday.In District 2 (all of Palm Desert except downtown), incumbents Kathleen Kelly and Gina Nestande were holding strong leads over challengers by Steven Moyer and Evan Trubee. Desert Sands Unified School District Tricia Pearce has amassed 8,624 votes compared to 4,593 for Douglas Hassett and 2,501 for Celeste Fiehler (as of Tuesday morning). Incumbent Gary Tomak did not seek re-election. State Assembly District 42 Incumbent Chad Mayes, who filed as No Party Preference, is leading over Republican challenger Andrew F. Kotyuk by more than 26,000 votes. 36th Congressional District Democratic incumbent Dr. Raul Ruiz has a large lead over Tea Party Republican challenger Erin Cruz. The Associated Press has declared Ruiz the winner. If he is the official victor once all ballots are tabulated, Ruiz will garner a fifth term representing much of Riverside County in the U.S. House of Representatives. Scroll to see the latest Riverside County election results: