Politics & Government

Votes Partially In For Long Beach City Council Races

Election day has come and gone in Long Beach and unofficial results are in.

Election day has come and gone in Long Beach and unofficial results are in.
Election day has come and gone in Long Beach and unofficial results are in. (Rachel Barnes/Patch)

LONG BEACH, CA —Election day has come and gone in Long Beach and results for the City Council, President and Senator races are in.

As of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the results recorded were made up of about 87 percent mail-in ballots and 12 percent vote center ballots. Only 683,328, or just over 12 percent, of Los Angeles County's voters were tallied out of the over 5 million registered voters.

Voters in Long Beach decided on council members for the even-numbered districts.

Find out what's happening in Long Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

In District 2, incumbent Cindy Allen was leading the race with just over 56 percent of the vote, or 1,821 votes, against opponents Ketty Citterio and Sara Zaidi as of 10:30 p.m. Citterio was trailing behind with about 39 percent of the vote, or 1,281 votes, and Zaidi secured about 4 percent of the vote or 147 votes.

In District 4, current City Councilmember Daryl Supernaw was in the lead with more than 48 percent of the vote, or 2,674 votes, against Herlinda Chico, Gerrie Schipske and Amrit Singh as of 10:30 p.m. Schipske and Chico were neck and neck with about a 0.5 percent difference between them with 1,317 and 1,289 votes respectively. Singh was behind them with about 5 percent of the vote, 0r 255 votes.

Find out what's happening in Long Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

In District 6, incumbent Suely Saro was leading by a large margin with about 78 percent of the vote, 0r 1,050 votes as of 10:30 p.m. Competitor Cristino Pinto logged almost 22 percent of the vote, or 293 votes.

In District 8, voters chose between newcomers Sharifa Batts and Tunua Thrash-Ntuk. As of 10:30, it was the closest Long Beach race of the night with Thrash-Ntuk leading with just under 55 percent of the vote, or 1,027 votes, and Batts behind with 45 percent of the vote, or 855 votes.

Scroll to the bottom of this story for real-time Los Angeles County election results.

Can't see the results? Click here for all March 5, 2024 Primary Los Angeles County election updates.

Select "Jump To Contest/Measure" in the dropdown below to choose results for a specific race, or scroll for the full primary election results:



SEE RELATED: Real-Time Results: Los Angeles District Attorney Primary Election 2024


Mail-in voters in California now have a way to track their ballots to make sure their votes are counted. The California Secretary of State is now offering "Where’s My Ballot?" for voters to track and receive notifications on the status of their vote-by-mail ballot.

With Where’s My Ballot? Voters who sign up will receive notices via email, text, or voice
message from the county elections official regarding the status of the voter's vote-by-mail ballot including:

  • When the ballot has been delivered
  • The date that the voter's ballot is expected to be delivered to the voter
  • If the voter's ballot is returned as undeliverable to the county elections official by the USPS
  • When the voter's completed ballot has been received by the county
  • Whether the voter's completed ballot has been accepted or a reason why the ballot could not be accepted and instructions of steps the voter can take in order to have the ballot accepted
  • The deadline for the voter to return his or her ballot if the county has not received a voter's completed ballot by specified dates as determined by the county elections officials

Presidential Primary

The primary will decide which candidate gets California's 169 delegates — the largest haul of any state — to the Republican and Democratic national conventions, to be held in July and August, respectively.

All three top contenders have been stumping in California. President Joe Biden and Republican contender Nikki Haley visited Southern California earlier this month. Biden is slated to return Feb. 20 for a series of campaign events in the Los Angeles area. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump campaigned in the Golden State days after skipping the Republican debate in September.

There were notable changes to California's primary this year. It moved up from June to Super Tuesday in March with 13 other states.

In California, the political parties determine whether they will have open or closed presidential parties, meaning only the party's registered voters can pick the winning candidates.

The Green Party, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the Republican Party are all holding closed primaries in California.

Furthermore, the state's GOP changed the rules to winner-takes-all so that any candidate who gets a majority wins all of the delegates. Previously, the delegates were divided up based on the number of congressional districts each Republican won.

The change, pushed by the Donald Trump campaign, raises the stakes in California's primary and favors the frontrunner in the Republican primary, which also happens to be Trump.

The American Independent Party, the Democratic Party, and the Libertarian Party hold a modified-closed primary, which means they allow No Party Preference voters to vote in their primaries.

Statewide Primary Elections

All 52 of California's congressional districts had primary races on March 5 along with one U.S. Senate race. With frontrunners Trump and Biden expected to sail to victory in California's presidential primary, the real suspense centers on the Golden State's senate race.

For the senate race, California had an open primary, which means only the top two vote-getters in the primary election, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election.

All election season, polls have shown Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) in the lead with former Los Angeles Dodger Steve Garvey (R), Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine ), and Rep. Barbara Lee (Oakland) vying for second place to make it into the general election. However, last week Garvey pulled into first place after consolidating conservative support and with a little help from an ad campaign by Schiff aimed at raising Garvey's profile over Porter, who is seen as the bigger threat in the
general election.

According to new polls from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, Garvey pulled into first place with the support of 27 percent of likely voters compared to Schiff's 25 percent and Porter's 19 percent. Just weeks earlier a California Elections and Policy Poll released in February had Porter and Garvey deadlocked in the race for second place.

Schiff went into February far in the lead with 25 percent of likely voters while Porter and Garvey, each garnered support from 15 percent of likely voters. Lee was polling in fourth place at 7 percent of the vote, according to the poll. It's been decades since a Republican won statewide office in California, and that may be why the Schiff campaign is expending considerable capital to raise Garvey's profile among Republican voters through a series of expensive Fox News ads, touting
him as too conservative for California.

Garvey, with just over $300,000 in his war chest, can't afford such ads. Porter blasted the tactic as a “brazenly cynical” bid for Schiff to handpick his opponent in the general election, counting on deep blue California to reject any statewide Republican candidate in the general election.

According to Politico, Porter and Schiff booked a staggering $25 million in airtime. Schiff has nabbed the bulk of the Democratic establishment endorsements such as Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers and the Los Angeles Times editorial board. Porter, a darling of progressives, garnered endorsements from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, and consumer advocacy groups.

Patch Staffer Michael Wittner contributed to this report.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.