While the last of votes are still being tallied, most Long Beach election results were determined late Tuesday night, resulting in a projected narrow win for hospitality workers and a mostly unchanged City Council landscape.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder is still counting ballots as of March 6, and reported a 12% voter turnout from registered voters for the March 2024 Primary Election for LA County. This shows a drop in voter participation in the county, as 24% of registered voters participated in the June 7, 2022 Primary Election.
Long Beach had four City Councilmember races, on school board seat and one local measure on the ballot.
Measure RW has a narrow margin of victory with 50.63% of the Yes votes and 49.37% of the No votes. If it passes, Long Beach hospitality workers employed at hotels with 100 employees or more will see an increase in their minimum wage rate, set to increase from $17.55 to $23 by July 1, 2024. Their minimum wage will see an annual increase and cap at $29.50 in July 2028.
The City Council seat for District 2 was under contest, with incumbent Vice Mayor Cindy Allen defending her spot. Allen is projected to keep her seat, receiving 54.35% of the votes from 2,724 votes tallied so far.
Ketty Citterio received 40.2% of the District 2 votes from 2,015 ballots. Citterio made the biggest dent as a candidate challenging an incumbent in Long Beach’s March 2024 Primary Election. Sara Zaidi received 5.45% of the votes, translating to 273 voters.
Daryl Supernaw is projected to keep his seat as the District 4 City Councilmember, earning 49.73% of the votes from 4,252 voters. This will be the last term Supernaw can serve as he will hit his cap of three terms and 12 years on the council.
Gerrie Schipske received 22.51% of the votes for the District 4 candidate from 1,925 voters, while Herlinda Chico gained 23.06% of the votes and Amrit Singh gained 4.7% of the votes.
For the sixth district, Suely Saro will retain her seat after receiving 75.96% of the votes from 1,599 voters, the largest lead of all council members. Cristino Pinto received 24.04% of the votes from 506 voters.
District 8 saw two new faces running for the council seat, since Al Austin hit his term cap after serving on the Long Beach City Council for 12 years. Tunua Thrash-Ntuk is projected to win the council seat for the eighth district after receiving 54.15% of the votes from 1,606 residents. Sharifa Batts has received 45.85% of the votes so far from 1,360 voters.
Long Beach Unified School District board member Erik Miller is poised to reclaim his seat, garnering 73.33% of the votes so far. Jerlene T. Tatum has gained 26.67% of the votes.
This article was last updated on March 6 at 4:55 p.m. and will continue to be updated as the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder continues to count ballots.
