Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez has regained a lead in her razor-thin battle for reelection in District 5.
According to Friday results from the Kern County Elections Office, Perez reclaimed a slim lead over Kimberly Salas after spending the better part of a week trailing Salas by 27 votes.
The big picture: Perez now leads Salas by a margin of is beating Perez 50.12 to 49.88%, with a razor-thin margin of just 67 votes.
- Perez was leading the close race by a few hundred votes following election day, with Salas flipping the lead in post-election day updates by a margin of – at its largest – 43 votes.
Driving the news: The race entered its final days messy, courtesy of a 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 4:30 p.m.
- The county estimates that there are 2,895 ballots to process with another 2,200 able to be cured due to signature issues. It is unclear how many of those ballots are from voters in District 5.
