Encinitas Councilman Tony Kranz appeared headed toward a mayoral victory after voting wrapped up for the midterms on Tuesday, Nov. 8, but at least one City Council seat was in close contention, according to early results.

For City Council District 3, which covers most of Cardiff and parts of east Encinitas, only 199 votes separated appointed incumbent Joy Lyndes and competitor Julie Thunder as of an early morning update from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Lyndes held the slim lead with 2,164 votes (52.41%) compared with Thunder’s 1,965 (47.59%).

While Lyndes had more mail-in votes, Thunder’s in-person votes appeared to show a stronger turnout, according to the numbers. Lyndes had 1,952 mail-in votes compared with 1,550 for Thunder. But Thunder’s 415 in-person votes surpassed Lyndes’ 212.

In the race to replace Mayor Catherine Blakespear, who appeared headed to victory in her bid for a state Senate seat, Councilman Tony Kranz had 8,011 votes (48.18%) to lead the race, which had a total of four candidates.

In a similar situation to District 3, two mayoral candidates were separated by 177 votes in a battle for second place.

Cindy Cremona was the closest behind Kranz with 4,161 votes (25.03%), according to the Registrar of Voters. But Jeff Morris was less than 200 votes behind her with 3,984 (23.97%). Although Cremona’s mail-in number was higher (3,424 to 3,062), Morris supporters appeared to make up for the deficit in person, 922 for Morris vs. 737 for Cremona.

Mayoral candidate Michael “Myekah” Blobe held fourth place with 467 votes (2.81%).

For City Council District 4, which covers most of Olivenhain and parts of east Encinitas, former Planning Commission chairman Bruce Ehlers held the lead 47.06% of the votes (2,010) counted so far. Pamela “Pam” Redela was in second place with 1,377 votes (32.24%), Dan Vaughn in third with 546 (12.78%), and Stacie Davis in fourth with 338 (7.91%).

The District 4 seat is an open race. Councilman Joe Mosca did not seek reelection.

Full results for all regional and state races can be found at www.livevoterturnout.com/ENR/sandiegocaenr/16/en/Index_16.html.

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