UPDATE: With the final count, Antonio Martinez defeated Christian Ramirez by three votes.
Original Story: Nearly three weeks after the fact, and we still have no finality to the City Council District 8 June primary result.
As County Registrar Michael Vu and his crew have been sorting through the remains of each day, candidate Christian Ramirez has been every so slowly gaining on Antonio Martinez.
What's been certain since June 6, is that community activist Vivian Moreno is through to the November General election.
What continues to grow less certain though is whom she will face.
Conventional wisdom held that Antonio Martinez would be the guy, but his lead has since dwindled and now finds himself topping Ramirez by a mere 32 votes.
Here are the current results. The county has 8,000 ballots to count.
Christian Ramirez spoke with IVN about the Race:
The Ground Game Is Key
Ramirez told IVN San Diego, "We had a very aggressive field campaign we were knocking on doors, urging folks to get to the polls and it's clear to us that hard work is paying off and we're just waiting for the final numbers so we can continue to build our campaign and ensure we win in the November election."
How Many District 8 Votes Still Outstanding?
Ramirez said, "We believe that many of the ballots of the 8,000 that remain are located in precincts in the southern part of the county, obviously District 8 is in the southern part of San Diego county and many of the ballots that have been counted in the last couple days have come from District 8, so we anticipate that the county happening today and early next week are ballots coming from District 8. We have until July 5th, that's when the Registrar must certify the election but I don't think we'll have to wait until then to find out the final results in our district."
Recount Possibilities?
Ramirez told IVN San Diego, "Everything is on the table on our end. We're concerned about the policies in place in the county, particularly where poll locations are established, there were some irregularities that we saw in the process. We're evaluating all of our options, closely monitoring the good folks at the ROV are doing, at this point we're very interested in making sure single vote in counted in District 8 and are not discarding the possibility of a recount if we believe the situation warrants."
As for those irregularities Ramirez mentioned. He told IVN San Diego polling locations were installed in the City of Imperial Beach or Chula Vista for registered voters in the City of San Diego, polling locations were changed without notice, some precincts, Ramirez added, had no polling locations.
Ramirez said the process exposed him to an antiquated process where urgent reforms are needed to allow as many voters as possible to participate in primary elections.
Differences Between Ramirez and Moreno?
"I have a 20 year history of advocating for our communities in District 8. We need bold leadership in all levels of government and what better place to do that than at the local level. And I think that's what distinguishes me from the other candidates. My commitment is to building social justice in District 8 which for far too long has been used as a welcome mat for America's Finest City. It's time to bridge that gap and treat every single resident of San Diego with dignity and respect, especially those of us who live in the southern part of the city."