Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez has lost her lead in her bid for reelection in District 5.
According to the latest results from the Kern County Elections Office, Perez is losing to Kimberly Salas by a little more than two dozen votes.
The big picture: Salas is beating Perez 50.05% to 49.95%, with a razor-thin margin of just 27 votes.
- Perez had been leading the close race by a few hundred votes for about a week after the election, until Salas pulled ahead last Wednesday to 43 votes. Last Friday’s update gave Perez a slight edge to pull back within 27 votes.
Driving the news: Salas may have benefitted from the Kern County District Attorney’s Office raiding Perez’s office shortly before the election.
- The District Attorney’s Office received a complaint that Perez was campaigning on public property using taxpayer-funded resources, leading to a raid of her office last month.
- Perez and staffer Christian Romo, who also is the chairman of the Kern County Democratic Party, were accused of holding a Kern County Democratic Party meeting in her office.
- Investigators took pictures of Perez’s office during the raid two weeks before the election.
What we’re watching: Kern County is scheduled to provide an update on Tuesday by 4 p.m.
- The county estimates that there are 9,135 ballots to process in total. It is unclear how many of those ballots are from voters in District 5.
