Middletown Unified’s $38 million school bond is five yes votes short of passing, and about 65% of Lake County’s ballots haven’t been counted.
The county has counted 7,757 ballots and has an estimated 14,167 left, according to the state’s unprocessed ballots report, updated Saturday. Every result posted so far comes from one county report, run at 3:47 a.m. on Nov. 4. The next one is expected by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Measure C needs 55% to pass. It has 606 yes votes and 504 no votes, or 54.59%. At that vote total, passing would take 611 yes votes.
The bond would pay for roofs, heating and air-conditioning systems, science and career-technical buildings, and permanent classrooms to replace portables, according to the voter pamphlet. Property owners in the district would pay about $49 per $100,000 of assessed value each year.
In-person voters in the first count backed Measure C at 57.24%. Mail voters backed it at 53.63%. Mail ballots make up 97% of what’s left: 13,792 of the 14,167. The rest are 284 provisional ballots, which elections workers check much like mail ballots before counting them, and 91 that are damaged or need more review.
The state’s report gives one number for the whole county. It doesn’t say how many of the remaining ballots came from the Middletown district, where 1,179 of 6,422 registered voters have had ballots counted.
Last year’s count flipped
Later ballots have changed a Lake County result before. On election night in November 2025, Proposition 50, the statewide measure on redrawing California’s congressional districts, led in the county 5,297 to 5,061, Lake County News reported. The final count had it losing here, 10,399 to 10,350. Ballots counted after that first report ran 5,338 no to 5,053 yes.
Clearlake’s second council seat
In Clearlake, two council seats are open. Dean Clark leads with 408 votes. Incumbent Russell Cremer is second with 380. Zabdy Neria has 346, 34 votes behind Cremer, followed by Alvaro Valencia with 338 and Carlos Ramos with 294.
Valencia got more in-person votes than anyone else in the race, 138. Among mail ballots he was last of the five, with 200.
Clearlake’s Measure D, which would make the city treasurer an appointed job instead of an elected one, leads 493 to 473. It needs more yes votes than no votes. Mail voters backed it 349 to 306. In-person voters opposed it 167 to 144.
No one qualified to run for treasurer this year, the city clerk’s candidate list shows. If Measure D passes, the council appoints someone.
School, water and Lakeport races
In Upper Lake Unified, three seats are open. Ben Guenther holds the third spot with 354 votes. Incumbent Diane Tomkins Plante has 283, and Caitlynn Decker has 281. Plante trails Guenther by 71 votes overall and by 24 among mail ballots.
In the Clearlake Oaks County Water District, incumbent Stan Archacki is third for two full-term seats with 120 votes, 40 behind A. Donald Whittier. Christine “Chris” Gardas leads with 193.
In Lakeport, where two council seats are open, incumbents Brandon Disney and Stacey Mattina are five votes apart, 399 to 394. Carl Ross Porter has 257.
What voters can still do
Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day count if they reach the county by Tuesday, the state says. So far 157 have arrived after Election Day.
Voters who got a notice about a missing or mismatched signature must return the signed statement by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25. The county lists 41 ballots waiting on that kind of fix. Voters can check their ballots through the state’s Where’s My Ballot service.
If every ballot the county has received counts, turnout would reach about 57.7% of registered voters. In the last midterm election, in 2022, it was 54.79%.
The county must send final results to the state by Dec. 4. The state has until Dec. 11 to certify them.
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