Sue Novasel Still Leads Supervisor Race But Her Opponent Is Now Uncertain

It may be a couple of weeks until all of the votes are counted for the June 3rd primary, and by the end of it all we may see a different outcome from the one seen Tuesday.

Sue Novasel and Kevin Brown were in the lead after Tuesday's election for the District 5 seat on the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors. Novasel came out on top with Brown coming in second and with the top two vote getters proceeding to the November runoff most assumed it would be those two names they'd see on the ballot.

While 100% of the ballots cast in polling places have been counted, the absentee ballots are still being reviewed and the provisional ballots have yet to be touched.

As of Friday afternoon only 14 votes separate 2nd place Brown from the 4th place finisher. The count looks like this: Novasel 1508, Brown 950, Angela Swanson 938, Kenny Curtzwiler 936, Gerri Greco 656 and Teresa Piper 300.

According to Assistant Registrar of Voters for the County, Linda Webster, there are 163 provisional ballots that will be counted after the remaining mail in ballots are counted. She expects the count of the absentee ballots will be done by the end of next week and then they can start the count of provisional ones. She said they still have about 200 to 250 absentee ballots to count. In the meantime, they are also completing a canvas of 1% of the ballots submitted Tuesday. This is required by law for every election, no matter how close of how far apart the votes are.

Webster said the reason the count of absentee and provisional ballots takes so long is due to the time it takes to verify the voters. They need to make sure the voters that mailed in a ballot didn't also go into a polling place and vote on a provisional ballot. They must also check signatures, especially since they sometimes get spouses submitting each other's ballot.

"There is the potential the outcome could change once the process is done," Webster said. When asked if she was aware of any El Dorado County voting results being changed after the absentee an provisional ballots were counted, she said she didn't think so.

South Lake Tahoe voters may remember the 2007 Lake Tahoe Unified School District election that had seats on the board change after the final ballot counts were certified. While Novasel was involved in that election as well, she wasn't involved in the board school board seat that was changed. Incumbent Barbara Bannar who thought she had won Tuesday's election, lost her seat to Dr. Larry Green eight days after the election. Both are board members today.