Though nothing is official yet – and no one in local races is claiming victory – results of the Nov. 5 election do look promising for the City of Escalon’s Measure P, a one percent sales tax increase.

Unofficial results posted by the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters office following the close of the polls on Nov. 5 – and then updated a couple of days later – show Measure P now with a more than 75 percent approval rating. It had 2,100 ‘yes’ votes in the latest figures released by county elections officials, compared to 688 ‘no’ votes. The money generated by the sales tax increase would stay in the city.

“The election results are not official, nor complete,” Interim City Manager Jaylen French said, noting that the Registrar of Voters reported having more than 108,000 ballots left to be counted in the various countywide races. However, it does appear that Measure P has more than enough votes to take effect; though French said they will wait for final numbers to be released before declaring the passage official.

Updates on the vote totals are expected to be issued from the county on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until all ballots are counted.

In the race for Escalon City Council, incumbent Shawn Strohman was leading the polling with 1,489 votes and running second, as of press time, was challenger Jeff Kay with 1,202 votes. Two seats are available on the council. Incumbent David Bellinger was in third place with 1,033 votes and Gabriella Vargas had 861 votes, in fourth place.

Again, the results are not yet official, with more votes still to be counted.

Escalon Unified School District’s Measure L did not appear to be headed toward gaining the 55 percent approval needed for passage. The latest vote totals showed a very slim margin for the ‘no’ votes, 2,529 to 2,498 ‘yes’ votes.

“From the votes that are counted, it does appear that the bond is not likely to pass,” said Escalon Unified School District Superintendent Ricardo Chavez. “I respect the position of our voters. We are waiting for all votes to be counted before we determine next steps.”

For the Farmington Rural County Fire Protection board, three seats were available and leading the way in the voting were Jeff Briggs, with 517 votes, Frank ‘Ed’ Bracco, Jr. in second with 351 and Nancy Lemos, third, with 319 votes. Jeremiah Mulvihill was in fourth with 277 votes and Kelly Ogilvie was running fifth with 106 votes.