Sebastopol City Council race too close to call

A nail biter of an election stretches into overtime

The race for Sebastopol City Council was bitter and closely contested – and it’s still not over. Twelve hours after the polls closed the race is still to close to call. Here are the results as of Nov. 9, 1:25 am.

• Jill McLewis 22.04% (941)

• Stephen Zollman 20.70% (884)

• Sandra Maurer 19.84% (847)

• Oliver Dick 18.78% (802)

• Dennis Colthurst 18.64% (796)

Screen capture from Sonoma Country Registrar’s Election Results

The three candidates who get the most votes will take the three open seats on the city council.

As it has been from the beginning of last night, Jill Lewis is the top vote-getter, but she’s only 57 votes ahead of Stephen Zollman, who in turn is only 37 votes ahead of third place runner Sandra Maurer.

Oliver Dick and Dennis Colthurst are close on her heels —that is, they’re just 45 and 51 votes away respectively from taking that third seat on the council away from her.

Only 139 votes separate first and last place - what a squeaker!

There are 5,575 registered voters in Sebastopol. 1,899 of those have already voted. That leaves a lot of potential votes still either uncast or as yet uncounted because they’re still in the mail. Mail in ballots must be mailed by 8 pm on election day and must be received within seven days in order to be counted.

The registrar has 30 days to certify the election.

We will continue to update this article as the numbers roll in.