Attorneys Elena Condes and Mark Fickes appear likely to meet in a November runoff in the race to assume the judicial robe being left by retiring Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carol Brosnahan.
Election returns Tuesday night show tight race between Condes and Fickes for first-place in the primary. However, neither a will achieve the simple majority of vote to avoid a November runoff, according to results updated on Monday night.
Condes currently leads the three-person race with 41.73 percent (130,993 votes), followed by Fickes at 37.45 percent (117,565 votes). Administrative judge Lilla Szelenyi (65,374 votes) is third with 20.82 percent.
Thousands of provisional ballots, however, remain to be counted in Alameda County, as of Tuesday afternoon.
The election for Seat 2 on the Alameda County Superior Court is the lone judicial race on the primary ballot this year. Judicial races are rarely contested, and typically appear on the ballot when a judge retires from the bench. In this case, the seat was open following Brosnahan’s retirement after 40 years on the court.
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