The initial vote counts released by Culver City at 2:07 a.m. on Nov. 4 shows Yasmine-Imani McMorrin, Freddie Puza, and Albert Vera taking the three available council seats.
In this first count, McMorrin leads the pool with 8,527 votes (18.73%), with Vera trailing very closely at 8,409 votes (18.47%).
Currently, Freddie Puza has hold of the third council seat with 7,101 votes (15.6%), which gives him a cushion of almost 200 votes on incumbent Goran Eriksson, who sits in fourth place with 6,908 votes.
The rest of the candidates received votes as follows:
- Darrel Menthe: 6,488 votes (14.25%)
- Heather Wollin: 3,030 votes (6.66%)
- Khin Khin Gyi: 2,354 votes (5.17%)
- Robert “Mr. Z” Zirgulis: 1,627 votes (3.57%)
- Anthony Rizzo: 1,074 votes (2.36%)
While the election results will not be officially confirmed until the end of the month, the city clerk’s office noted that there should not be significant changes in vote counts and percentages from Nov. 6 up to when the results are confirmed.
If these results hold, it would represent a major loss for the Culver City Police Officers Association.
While just one the three candidates they publicly endorsed, Vera, did not win seats on the city council, McMorrin and Puza were the two candidates that the group primarily rallied against because of their desires to make significant cuts to police funds for reallocation into other departments are slated to take office in December.
The current members of the council whose seats are opening — Meghan Sahli-Wells, Thomas Small, and Eriksson — will serve their final days as councilmembers on Dec. 14.
The two other local elections seem to have far more conclusive results. Measure B — which would repeal the current rent control ordinance in place and require all future rent control decisions be placed on a ballot — was rejected by almost 2,000 votes and a margin just under 11 points. With 9,863 no votes (55.4%) and 7,941 yes votes (44.6%), it is unlikely that the results for Measure B will shift dramatically enough for the measure to pass.
While the vote on Measure RE was a bit closer, the result is still decided. The measure — which increases property transfer taxes from a flat rate to a tiered rate base on sale price — passed with 9,344 yes votes (53.02%) to 8,281 no votes (46.98%).
Culver City had impact at the national level as well. Karen Bass once again retained her seat as the representative for the 37th district in California.
For the state assembly, Sydney Kamlager-Dove has retained her seat as the representative of the 54th district.
There were two major races in the county: one measure and one appointment.
Measure J — which sets the budget for “community investment and alternatives to incarceration” to at minimum 10% of the county’s locally generated unrestricted revenues in the general fund — passed with a solid margin.
For the role of Los Angeles County District Attorney, incumbent Jackie Lacey lost to George Gascon.
As with the Culver City votes, Los Angeles County voting has yet to be finalized, and official results are subject to change.
For more information, visit the city’s official election information webpage at https://www.culvercity.org/city-hall/election-information. For full election results in Los Angeles county, visit results.lavote.net.
