March 5 election results updated: Some Yuba-Sutter races, school bond measures still too close to call

Mar. 12—Updated election results from the March 5 presidential primary election for Yuba County show that various supervisor races and school bond measures are still largely undecided, while in Sutter County most results should remain about the same.

In Yuba County, there were still more than 5,000 ballots left to be processed, Yuba County Clerk-Recorder Donna Hillegass told the Appeal on Tuesday afternoon. The vast majority of those ballots, 5,229, were unprocessed vote by mail ballots — which include challenged ballots that were missing a signature or their signature did not match.

Hillegass said the "bulk of the outstanding vote by mail ballots" should be processed today, but it will still take some time before all ballots are fully processed.

"Final Results won't be (available) for a little while (as) we have to allow a few deadlines to pass," Hillegass said in an email to the Appeal on Tuesday. "For example, all ballots received by mail through today (Tuesday) with a 3/5 postmark are eligible to be counted. If any of those ballots have signature issues or if any provisional ballots, which are not yet processed, have signature issues, we have to give the voter at least eight days to fix the signature issue."

Sutter County Clerk-Recorder Donna Johnston said there were 353 ballots left and most are provisional.

With ballots still left to be counted, it appeared as if voters rejected the majority of school bond measures sought by various school districts for facilities improvements and other construction needs. While a majority of the measures may receive just over 50% of the vote, it looks like many will not reach the needed 55% for full approval.

Plumas Lake Elementary School District's Measures V, W, and X were all fairly close to the 55% threshold as of Tuesday. Measure V had 53.96% voting yes, Measure W had 54.11% voting yes, and Measure X had 53.25% voting yes.

The three separate measures, totalling $54 million, could fund a new middle school to address growth and overcrowding in the district.

According to Plumas Lake Elementary School District Superintendent Jeff Roberts, Measures V, W, and X amount to $18 million individually, and would fund separate facility needs for a new middle school, the Appeal previously reported. If approved, Measure V will fund construction of standard classrooms and a library, Measure W will help fund specialty classrooms and facilities including a multipurpose room, and Measure X will provide sports facilities and physical education spaces. All of these facilities will contribute to a campus housing 800 students with enough space to expand its capacity to 1,200 students.

Roberts previously said that the district has seen "tremendous growth" in recent years due to a rise in residential development. The district has seen a 30% increase in enrollment since 2019, leading to a total of 1,661 students across two elementary schools and one junior high. Demographers from King Consulting estimate that the district will have approximately 2,200 students by 2030, the Appeal previously reported.

The district already owns 25 acres of land that would be a site for the new middle school. The land is located on River Oaks Boulevard in Plumas Lake across from the Linda Fire Protection District 3 station.

"We don't want to spend anymore money on temporary classrooms," Roberts previously said. "If we're going to spend our money, let's spend our money on what we really need."

Wheatland Union High School District had two bond measures on the ballot — Measure T and Measure U.

Measure T, a $20 million bond that will aid the district in building a new Plumas Lake high school, had 54.77% voting in favor as of Tuesday, just shy of the needed 55%. Measure U, however, a $8.7 million bond that would have allowed the district to renovate some school facilities and make safety and security improvements, looked to have failed with 58.97% voting no.

Measure S, Marysville Joint Unified School District's $97-million bond proposal that would have funded a new middle school serving south Yuba County and various facilities improvements to help reduce school overcrowding, appeared to have failed Tuesday with 61.93% voting no.

The only school bond measure in Sutter County, Measure B, also looks like it will fail as of Tuesday with 53.6% voting yes. Sutter Union High School District was pursuing the $13.8 million bond measure to fund a number of modernization projects including the Sutter Union High School football stadium and athletic facilities as well as new classrooms.

The race for Yuba Water Agency Director North Division still did not have a clear cut winner. As of Tuesday, incumbent Charlie Mathews has received 47.08% of the vote with challengers Randy Fletcher getting 33.76% and Don Schrader receiving 19.16% of the vote. If none of the candidates hit the necessary 50% plus one mark, then Mathews and Fletcher will square off in the general election on Nov. 5.

In both of the contested Yuba County supervisor races, one race appears to be all but decided while the other is still largely undecided because thousands of votes are still left to be counted.

For the Yuba County Supervisor District 3 position, incumbent Seth Fuhrer was leading challenger John Floe as of Tuesday with 66.58% of the vote. In the Yuba County Supervisor District 2 race, challenger Renick House was leading incumbent Don Blaser with 53.04% of the vote.

According to election results as of Tuesday for two contested Sutter County supervisor positions, both incumbents are likely to lose. Challenger Jeff Stephens was leading all candidates for Sutter County Supervisor District 5 with 51.94% of the vote. Incumbent Mat Conant had 26.29% of the vote while the other challenger, Sarb Thiara, had 21.77% of the vote.

For the Sutter County Supervisor District 1 race, challenger Jeff Boone was leading incumbent Nick Micheli with 53.8% of the vote.