UPDATE:
With the final Election Night tally posted, the race to succeed Kelly Sanders as Humboldt County's clerk-recorder and register of voters is shaping up to be a weeks-long nail biter.
Elections Manager Juan Pablo Cervantes finished the night with a razor-thin advantage, taking 50.63 percent of the more than 14,700 ballots counted thus far to senior recordable document examiner Tiffany Hunt Nielsen's 49.37 percent.
Cervantes held a larger lead — with nearly 53 percent of the vote — in the first Election Night return, which was comprised entirely of early voting and vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the Election's Office prior to Election Day. Recent trends tell us the post-election votes will skew closer to those results — a good sign for Cervantes — but the race remains far too close to call with thousands of ballots remaining to be counted.
PREVIOUSLY:
Juan Pablo Cervantes has jumped out to an early lead in the race to replace retiring Kelly Sanders as Humboldt County's clerk-recorder and registrar of voters.
In the first Election Night return — entirely comprised of ballots that arrived at the Humboldt County Elections office prior to today — Cervantes leads with 52.76 percent of the6,731 votes tallied thus far, with Tiffany Hunt Nielsen trailing with 47.24 percent.
With Sanders, a two-term incumbent, opting not to seek re-election, three have entered the fray in a bid to succeed her and oversee both the county Elections Office and Recorder's Office, which is responsible for maintaining vital records — things like birth and death certificates, and marriage licenses — and other legal documents. In the June primary, Benjamin Hershberger finished a distant third, leaving Cervantes and Nielsen headed toward a runoff.
Cervantes, an elections specialist for the county Office of Elections, said he is running because he's "passionate" about transparent and efficient county government. Nielsen, meanwhile, is a senior recordable document examiner at the Recorder's Office, having entered county employment after 17 years at Humboldt Land Title Co.
Check back first thing tomorrow morning for full election night results.
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