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New Haven school board candidate Jeff Wang
leads incumbent Michael Ritchie by one vote.
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ELECTION 2016 | Talk about a nail-biter! The current margin of victory for a seat on the East Bay’s New Haven Unified School District is one vote.
Three seats are available on the school district board representing Union City and parts of South Hayward,
Newcomers Sharan Kaur and Lance Nishihira have all but wrapped up two of the seats, but the third remains very uncertain.
Jeff Wang leads incumbent school board member Michael Ritchie by a single vote, 8,725 to 8,724.
The Alameda County Registrar’s office updated its election totals late Wednesday afternoon. A further update is expected Friday, but only a dwindling number of uncounted ballots remain.
There is no mechanism in Alameda County Election Code for triggering an automatic recount. However, guidelines exist for a candidate to request a recount, provided they pay for its costs.
In the event of a tie, the rules are less certain. Since the registrar’s office only facilitates election for jurisdictions, it has no rules regarding the outcome, according to a spokesperson.
In this specific case, the steps for who is ultimately awarded the third school board seat rests with the New Haven Unified School District’s bylaws.
The school district could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
UPDATE: Alameda County Register of Voters released its unofficial final results Friday night. The totals show Jeff Wang extended his one-vote lead over Michael Ritchie to 84. Alameda County’s election results are scheduled to be certified on Dec. 8.
ebcitizen.com 
Refresh Results Last Update: Nov 18 2016 8:11PM
New Haven USD Governing Board Members
Vote for no more than Three (3)
Total Precincts: 44 Precincts Reported: 44 Percent Reported: 100.00
Contest # of Votes % of Total
NP – Sharan Kaur 13853 27.92
NP – Lance Nishihira 10002 20.16
NP – Jeff Wang 9136 18.41
NP – Michael Ritchie 9052 18.24
NP – Jonas Dino 7444 15.00
Write-in 136 0.27
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By coincidence, the 2nd seat for the school board in Albany CA is also decided by a single vote as of Fri 11/18/16: http://www.acgov.org/rov/current_election/230/index.htm
Incredibly agonizing to have it drawn out so long!
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By MW:
And since there is the slight possibility of the election ending up in a dead even tie, while I have no idea as to how California, Alameda County, or local law or custom would deal with such a situation, however in the past in such situations in the US sometimes the two candidates who were tied actually agreed to a coin flip to decide the winner.
In fact a few decade ago a union I belonged to had an election that ended up in a dead even tie, and so the two tied candidates agreed to a coin flip to decide the winner.
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