There’s now two nail-biter races for Citrus Heights City Council seats

Sentinel staff report–
Less than 10 votes now separate business owner Natalee Price from Mayor Porsche Middleton in the race for Citrus Heights City Council District 5, and the race for District 2 has now narrowed to less than 100 votes separating the top two candidates.

In District 5, which covers the southeastern portion of Citrus Heights east of San Juan Avenue, Mayor Porsche Middleton leads by just nine votes. With a total of 2,415 votes now counted in the race for the District 5 seat, Middleton has won 1,212 votes compared to Price’s 1,203 votes.

County officials on Friday had released vote counts showing Middleton had slightly increased her lead since election night to be 37 votes ahead of Price, but as of a 3 p.m. update on Tuesday, Nov. 15, her lead slipped.

Neither candidate has claimed victory in the nail-biter race, as more votes have yet to be counted.

In an update on social media over the weekend, Middleton said “I won’t claim victory yet but we expect the next update to continue to be in my favor.” Price said Saturday that the close race was “exciting,” and said she was “eagerly awaiting more results.”

District 2
The race for an open seat in the newly created Council District 2, covering the northeastern portion of Citrus Heights east of Sunrise Boulevard, has also become a hot race. In that race, just 97 votes separate Planning Commissioner Michael Nishimura from contender MariJane Lopez-Taff. Nishimura has now dropped slightly to 35% of the vote and Lopez-Taff now holds 33% of the vote, up from 31% on Friday.

Nishimura has 1,396 votes, compared to Lopez-Taff’s 1,299. Two other candidates, Steven Durham and James Tipton, each have 16% and 13% respectively in the four-way race for District 2.

Countywide, officials report 258,266 votes have been counted, with about 145,452 remaining to be processed. The next update is expected Friday afternoon.