SAN BERNARDINO >> Final, unofficial results Tuesday night indicate Bessine Littlefield Richard will face Roxanne Williams in a runoff for the 6th Ward, while 7th Ward Councilman Jim Mulvihill will also face a runoff — but it’s still not clear who his opponent will be.
No runoff is needed in the 5th Ward race, where incumbent Henry Nickel took 66 percent of the vote to Brian Davison’s 33 percent, or the treasurer’s race, in which incumbent David Kennedy grabbed 71 percent of the vote over challenger Karmel Roe.
In races where none of the candidates reach 50 percent, the top two vote-getters advance to a February run-off.
Mulvihill is comfortably in first with 29 percent of the vote — 451 votes — but the race for second is still too close to call, with Scott Beard garnering 319 votes compared to Kim Robel’s 304.
Countywide, some 4,500 ballots remain to be counted, but how many of those belong to the 5th Ward race is not known, according to Registrar of Voters Michael Scarpello.
“We may do another posting (of election results) Thursday or Friday,” Scarpello said, explaining that the county also faces a weekend deadline as part of its state-mandated switch to a new election system. “Our plan is to certify the election results Monday at 4.”
Beard said that, while he expected to continue gaining ground on Robel, he wasn’t declaring victory.
“In my mind, we’re still counting,” he said. “I like Kim. My fear was that I’d be in a runoff with her, honestly.”
The race for the 7th Ward, which represents the city’s north end, was focused heavily on Mulvihill, who first took office in 2013 after the recall election of Wendy McCammack, which Beard financed.
Mulvihill said he was happy with the results so far.
“You work hard, you go out walking, and you go meet the people and so forth,” he said. “I think there’s a certain value to being the incumbent — but obviously not a lot. I guess I’m surprised that some of the candidates didn’t do better, or that Robel did as well as she did.”
Robel, though she was in third, said she was very pleased with the results so far.
“Frankly, I’m kind of an anything-but Mulvihill girl, so I’m happy with all of us,” she said. “We’re talking about a couple hundred votes, so I’m waiting until more come in. With the low participation rates in San Bernardino, people don’t understand — every vote counts.”
A total of 1,550 votes are counted in the race for the 7th Ward, which has about 30,000 residents, many not registered to vote. Damon Alexander sits close behind the leaders with 290 votes, while Leticia Garcia has 186.
Ballots still to be counted include those received at polling places on Election Day, damaged ballots and provisional ballots.
In the 6th Ward race to replace retiring Councilman Rikke Van Johnson, Littlefield Richard of the county’s Workforce Development Department was just ahead of Williams, a program specialist for the San Bernardino City Unified School District — 370 votes to 356 votes — reversing their order from the first round of results. However, both are assured placement on the runoff ballot, beating out Anthony Jones (156 votes) and Rafael Rawls (101 votes).
In the 5th Ward, Nickel, first elected to represent the northwest part of the city in a February 2014 special election, kept a 2-to-1 lead throughout the night.
“The results are humbling and I am looking forward to serving this city for another four years,” Nickel said late Tuesday night.
Davison is a small-business owner who campaigned to increase police patrols and address panhandling and homeless issues.
The actual vote was 1,004 to 504.
“It is over when it is over,” Davison said. “I wanted to try and make a difference in San Bernardino.”
Challenger Karmel Roe failed to dislodge the long-term hold of incumbent David Kennedy on the city treasurer’s job, which he has held for some 24 years.
Kennedy won with 5,242 votes — 71 percent — compared to Roe’s 2,125, or 28 percent, in the citywide race.
A mortgage broker who ran for mayor in 2013 and the 5th Ward City Council in 2014, Roe attacked Kennedy for not having done more to help a bankrupt city.
The specific things Roe said she would do to change the office — demanding audits, taking control of the Finance Department, encouraging economic development in the city — are not things the treasurer is empowered to do under the current city charter.
Roe and Kennedy could not be reached for comment.
Running unopposed — and so reporting 100 percent of the vote — were incumbent City Attorney Gary Saenz, City Clerk Gigi Hanna and 3rd Ward Councilman John Valdivia.