Election Day – for the California Statewide Direct Primary Election – has long since passed but the numbers are still being tallied for the Tuesday, June 5 vote. Results are unofficial, with some races appearing to have clear cut winners and others still in the balance – but no confirmation of winners coming until the final certification of the vote.

Unofficial results are available on the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters website, as well as information about the ballots remaining to be process.

According to the unofficial San Joaquin County figures, John Cox carried the county with 17,661 votes cast for him in the race for California Governor, with Gavin Newsom second with 15,744 votes. The top two vote getters statewide will have a runoff election in November for the gubernatorial post. Cox had just a slight edge percentage wise, leading Newsom 31 to 27 percent in the crowded field for governor.

Also, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein tallied 20,951 votes in San Joaquin County, far outdistancing any competitor. In the bid for the State Board of Equalization, District 1, Tom Hallinan had a 23,066 to 15,424 vote lead over Ted Gaines.

Local races of interest showed Pat Withrow of Escalon with 31,010 votes in his bid to become the next San Joaquin County Sheriff-Coroner, with incumbent Steve Moore at 22,136 votes. That equates to a 58 to 42 percent lead for Withrow in the unofficial results.

The San Joaquin County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor race saw Steve Bestolarides polling 79 percent of the vote, receiving 39,542 votes as compared to 10,370 for Reno Ursal, trailing with 21 percent.

Fourth District incumbent San Joaquin County Supervisor Chuck Winn, who represents Escalon, Farmington and the surrounding area on the county board, had a 63 to 37 percent lead over challenger Julie Damron-Brown, with Winn polling 9,245 votes to 5,412 for Damron-Brown.

Incumbent Congressman Jeff Denham was leading in the race to retain his 10th District Congressional seat, with 7,132 votes; next closest was Josh Harder, polling 2,822 votes in San Joaquin County, putting Denham at 38 percent. Incumbent Heath Flora had received an estimated 66 percent of the vote in the county, at 10,657 votes, outpacing challenger Robert D. Chase, with 5,558 votes in the race for the 12th Assembly District seat.

San Joaquin County elections officials said that it typically takes weeks for counties to process and count all of the ballots. Elections officials have approximately one month to complete their extensive tallying, auditing, and certification work, known as the official canvass.

Most notably, officials added, voting by mail has increased significantly in recent years and many vote-by-mail ballots arrive on, or up to three days after, Election Day (vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the county elections official no later than three days after the election are included in the official canvass). In processing vote-by-mail ballots, elections officials must confirm each voter’s registration status, verify each voter’s signature on the vote-by-mail envelope, and ensure each person did not vote elsewhere in the same election before the ballot can be counted.

Other ballots that are processed after Election Day include provisional ballots (processed similar to vote-by-mail ballots), conditional voter registration provisional ballots, and ballots that are damaged or cannot be machine-read and must be remade by elections officials.