Sentinel staff report–
Latest election results in the race for three seats on the Citrus Heights City Council show Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins maintaining a strong lead, followed by Mayor Steve Miller in second place and Planning Commissioner Porsche Middleton in a close third. About 700 votes separate Middleton from appointed incumbent Albert Fox, who is in fourth place.
As of the latest vote totals released on Wednesday, Bruins holds 27% of the votes, Mayor Steve Miller comes in second with 21%, Planning Commissioner Porsche Middleton has 20%, appointed incumbent Al Fox has 17% of the vote, and the fifth candidate, Treston Shull, holds 12%. Election officials are scheduled to release another vote count update Friday afternoon.
So far, only Bruins has claimed victory in the race with her six-point lead, leaving the outcome of two other seats on the City Council still to be decided.
“It is a little close to call, but I think we’ll know better after the next vote count release,” Miller told The Sentinel Wednesday afternoon, although noting it would be hard for him to slide to fourth place with his current 4% lead over Fox.
Both the Middleton and Fox campaigns echoed the mayor’s comments in statements to The Sentinel or posts on their social media accounts. Shull, who placed last, also said there were “too many ballots left to know the outcome.”
“All of the results are not in yet,” Middleton told her supporters in a post on Facebook Wednesday morning, noting she was in third place with a 600-plus vote lead. “I want to thank each one of you for your vote and support. Stay tuned…”
So how many ballots are left to count?
Countywide, the Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections Division website reports that an estimated 225,000 ballots remain to be processed, with a total of 185,00 ballots counted so far. A report in the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday put that number at as many as 400,000 ballots still to be counted, due in part to mail-in ballots still arriving.
Compared to the past City Council election in 2016, when a total of more than 46,000 votes were cast, there have only been 24,000 total votes counted so far.
Related: Want to see if your vote-by-mail ballot got counted? Here’s how you can check online
The top three vote-getters will each earn a four-year term on the five-member City Council and are slated to be seated during the first council meeting in December.
Bruins, who sought her fifth term on the City Council and claimed victory Tuesday night, told The Sentinel she was “very grateful that the voters have given me four more years to serve this wonderful community.”
Want the latest results? Updated vote totals will be included in The Sentinel’s Weekend e-Edition this Sunday. Click here to sign up.
