Magali Limeta is perched just below an outright win for Marin County’s District 5 supervisor's seat, with the latest tally leaving her a hair under the majority needed to dodge a November runoff. With thousands of ballots still sitting in the queue, county officials say the next two weeks will decide whether Novato’s school board president nudges past the 50% mark.
Count updates and what they show
According to the Marin Independent Journal, the Marin County elections office had Limeta at about 49.8% of the vote as of last Friday, an uptick from her share on election night. The paper reports the county estimated roughly 10,387 ballots still had to be counted, a relatively small pool that could be just enough to push her over the 50% threshold and end the race now.
How the county finishes the count
The county’s candidate guide explains that a manual tally is performed at the end of the official canvass, and that specific audit dates are posted at least five days in advance, in line with state rules. Marin County also noted in a June 5 news release that the earliest the Elections Department may certify and report final results to the Secretary of State is Friday, June 26.
Manual tally and next steps
The Marin Independent Journal reports that county staff plan to start the manual tally at 10 AM on Wednesday, June 17. Teams will hand-count a random sample of precincts as part of the state-required audit. After the manual count and canvass wrap-up, officials will continue updating totals on the county’s results dashboard until the election is certified.
Who’s in the race
Limeta, who serves as president of the Novato Unified School District board, led a five-candidate field that also featured Andy Podshadley, Curtis Aikens, Chris Carpiniello and Marc Hunter Lewis, as outlined in local voter guides. With Novato’s mix of neighborhood vote-by-mail patterns, campaigns are eyeing particular precinct returns closely as the remaining ballots are processed.
What to watch next
The big items to watch now are the manual tally beginning the week of June 17 and whether the outstanding ballots lift Limeta past the 50% mark before certification. For running tallies and official notices, local outlets such as Patch and the county’s election pages will carry updates throughout the canvass period.
