San Luis votes still being counted

More than 1,000 votes remain to be validated and counted before the outcomes will be known in mayoral and city council races in Tuesday's primary elections in San Luis.

Initial returns showed incumbent Mayor Juan Carlos Escamilla with a 101-vote lead over Nieves Riedel, with Africa Luna and incumbents Marco Antonio Reyes Jr. and Rafael Torres having the top vote totals in the races for the three council seats.

Yuma County elections workers still must validate and tabulate 351 early ballots turned in election day at the poll, 604 early votes turned in the same day at the county recorder's office and 126 questioned ballots, city spokeswoman Karin Meza said.

That task involves verifying the eligibility of the votes and then adding them to the candidates' tallies. Kevin Tunell, county director of public and legislative affairs, said recorder's and elections employees could complete that task as soon as Thursday or Friday, he said.

The county managed the election for San Luis under a contract with the city.

At the close of voting Tuesday, Escamilla declared himself the winner, telling supporters, "You are witness that we have this election won."

Later, he said even if he loses the race, "I feel like a winner because all of the people's support."

For her part, Riedel said, "The numbers are frozen and we have to wait. I don't think either of us can declare victory because the results can change."

With 1,976 votes processed Tuesday night, Escamilla had 975 votes, compared with 874 for Riedel.

There were also 101 write-in votes cast in the mayoral race, but Tunell said it could not be ascertained that all those ballots went for Lilia Quiñonez, who was running as a write-in candidate in the three-way mayoral race.

Riedel said Quiñonez's presence split the vote that could prevent any of the three from capturing the mayoral seat Tuesday.

In a primary, any candidate who receives more than half the total votes cast in his or her race automatically wins a seat. The mayoral race had been expected to be decided in the primary before Quiñonez jumped into the race.

In the event none of the mayoral candidates gets a majority of the mayoral vote, the two who have the highest vote totals will compete in a runoff in the city's general election in May.

In the council races, Luna led with 840 votes, followed by Reyes with 823 and Torres, according to early returns. Following them were Marco Pinzón, 758; incumbent Councilman Archibaldo Gurrola, 738; Abelina Jaime, 650; David Lara, 387; Carlos Bernal, 332; Monica Borga, 204; and Juan Evangelista, 74.

If no council candidate wins a seat in the primary, then those with the six highest totals will compete for the three seats in May.