Huntington Beach Poised To Enact Cannabis Tax: Early Primary Results

LOS ALAMITOS, CA — Polls have closed in Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, and voters will soon know election results or whether there will be runoff races for Orange County's District Attorney's office and the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

If no candidate in those races received more than 50 percent of the vote, then the top two vote-getters will head to a Nov. 8 runoff election.

As of 9:48 p.m., incumbent District Attorney Todd Spitzer had a significant lead in the race to determine who will be Orange County's next district attorney, according to preliminary results from the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Spitzer led with 61.9 percent of the vote while challenger Pete Hardin was a distant second at 20.2 percent. Bryan Chehock had 9.8 percent of the vote while Michael A. Jacobs received 8 percent.
As of 8:41 p.m., the Los Angeles Times reported that California Sen. Alex Padilla clinched a spot on the November ballot.

Republican attorney Mark Meuser is anticipated to advance to the November ballot as well, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Three Orange County cities voted on local ballot measures.

Early results show Newport Beach and Westminster are poised to reject changes to their mayor positions.

As of 9:48 p.m., 59.7 percent of voters in Newport Beach voted against Measure B, which would allow residents to directly elect the mayor. Around 58.6 percent of Westminster residents voted against eliminating Measure C, which would have eliminated the elected mayor position and add a City Council seat.

Early results show that 70.6 percent of voters in Huntington Beach approve of Measure A, which would impose a cannabis business tax if and when the city allows recreational marijuana.

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

Click here to track your ballot and make sure it is counted.

As of April, the California Secretary of State reported that 26,948,297 Californians were registered to vote, accounting for almost 82 percent of the state's eligible voting population.

Not surprisingly, there are far more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state, with 46.75 percent for the former and 23.92 percent for the latter. GOP registration in the state has been dropping steadily, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down even as Republican registration climbed at the national level over the last year.

In Orange County, the rate of voter registration is high. As of June, 1,810,317 residents were registered to vote— with 37.4 percent of voters registered as Democrats, 33.33 percent as Republicans and 23.6 percent as having no party preference.

Voter turnout is expected to be low this primary season, especially without highly competitive statewide races.

Candidates at the top of the ballot in Orange County include Orange County District Attorney contenders:

• Todd Spitzer
• Peter Hardin
• Bryan Chehok
• Mike Jacobs

Candidates vying for the hotly-contested District 5 seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors include:

• Sup. Katrina Foley, District 2
• Kevin Muldoon, Newport Beach Council Member
• State Sen. Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel)
• Diane Harkey, former Dana Point Mayor and Council Member

The race for the 2nd District involves the county's first-ever supervisor district with a Latino majority, and candidates include:

• Jon Dumitru, Orange Council Member
• Cecilia Iglesias, former Santa Ana Council Member
• Kim Bernice Nguyen, Garden Grove Council Member
• Vicente Sarmiento, Santa Ana Mayor
• Juan Villegas, Santa Ana Council Member

In the 4th District, three candidates are vying for the Board of Supervisors seat, including:

• Doug Chaffee, incumbent
• Sunny Park, Buena Park Mayor
• Steven Vargas, Brea Council Member

REAL-TIME RESULTS

Real-time results are below — use the scroll on the right and the "customize viewing results" box to select the race of your choice. Patch will be updating the results throughout the night as votes are tallied — refresh the page for the latest updates.

Can't see the widget below? Click here for all Orange County election results.

For a complete guide to statewide races, see the CalMatters California Election 2022 Voter Guide.