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Voters in the Tri-Valley, and the rest of Alameda County, should have their ballots in hand at home for the June 7 primary election.
For those residents poring over the voter information guide, five local elections will stand out: Zone 7 Board of Directors, Alameda County Board of Education Trustee Area 7, county sheriff-coroner, county district attorney and county superintendent of schools.
Each is contested, although there’s no guarantee that each will be decided for sure next month.
The four Zone 7 board positions and the Tri-Valley’s seat on the county education board will have winners based on the candidate or candidates who receive the most votes. As would county superintendent, which has only two candidates.
The other countywide positions, however, would require a single candidate to receive better than 50% of all votes cast to win outright in the primary election. Otherwise, the top two finishers in June will advance to a runoff ballot in the November general election.
There is a distinct possibility for district attorney (with four candidates) and sheriff (with three candidates), but the chance remains that a single candidate could win via the primary.
Local voters will also notice county incumbents Phong La, assessor; Henry “Hank” Levy, treasurer-tax collector; and Melissa Wilk, auditor-controller/clerk-recorder, on the ballot unchallenged as required by law. There are also three county court commissioners running uncontested for full judgeships on the Alameda County Superior Court — Tamiza Hockenhull (Department 1), Pelayo O. Llamas (Department 12) and Michael Bishay (Department 21).
Election Day is June 7, which is the day to cast your ballot in-person at a precinct or the final opportunity to turn in your completed vote-by-mail ballot. Voters could choose to participate in early voting at specified locations, or they can submit their home ballot sooner via the mail or at designated ballot drop-boxes across the county.
The deadline to register to vote in the election is Monday (May 23), and the last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is May 31. Visit acvote.org for more information.
Learn more about the candidates in the five contested local elections via the links below. And be sure to study up on the state and federal candidates, either in upcoming Weekly coverage or in your own online research.
* Alameda County Board of Education, Area 7
* Alameda County Superintendent of Schools
Thanks to the Pleasanton Weekly (PW) for reminding everyone of the importance of voting in the current Primary Election. I would encourage every reader to vote immediately and drop off your ballot at approved locations. I would recommend the PW publish an article with the locations of the ballot drop-off locations. I would also encourage every voter to read the Voter Information Guide published by Alameda County and sent to all voters. If you have not yet received it or your ballot, you may want to register to vote immediately. Website to register: https://www.acvote.org/voting/register-to-vote Finally, I draw your attention to the Candidate Statements in the Voter Guide right after the Sample Ballot. Only two candidates published a Candidate Statement. These statements cost the candidate over $13k to submit. None of the other candidates chose to publish a statement and let you know a bit about themselves. Even the incumbent, whose salary we are paying and who has hundreds of thousands of $ in his campaign fund, did not publish a statement. I believe we should all view this as a sign of his disrespect to the voters in our district. Without making this a campaign speech for any specific candidate or mentioning any candidate by name, I would recommend only considering one of the two candidates who chose to publish a statement for us, the voters, in the Alameda County Voter Information Guide.