Politics & Government
Carlsbad General Election Results: City Council, Mayor
Carlsbad voters have had their say on local, county and state races.

CARLSBAD, CA — The polls are closed in Carlsbad, and voters know the early results of the 2022 California general election.
Scroll to the bottom of this story for real-time San Diego County election results.
Carlsbad voters chose a new mayor, two council members, a city treasurer and a city clerk. Voters also decided Measure J, which the council placed on the ballot. If approved, Measure J would allow the city to spend up to $24 million to renovate the Monroe Street swimming pool.
Find out what's happening in Carlsbadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Keith Blackburn led Michael Curtin in the race for mayor. Blackburn led Curtin 69.72 percent to 30.28 percent, according to early balloting results.
Six candidates were running for the District 1 council seat. Melanie Burkholder and Sam Ward were close with 37.81 percent and 37.40 percent, respectively. Two candidates were running for the District 3 seat. Priya Bhat-Patel was ahead of Ray Pearson with 55.95 percent to 44.05 percent.
Find out what's happening in Carlsbadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In San Diego County, voters selected a new sheriff and decided whether to elect the incumbents or challengers of two seats on the Board of Supervisors, among other races.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Undersheriff Kelly Martinez took a large early lead over former city prosecutor John Hemmerling in the race to replace retired Sheriff Bill Gore. The undersheriff led Hemmerling 58.2 percent to 41.7 percent, a difference of more than 70,000 votes, according to early balloting results.
In District 4, Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher was challenged by Amy Reichert, state-licensed investigator who co-founded Re-Open San Diego, a group opposed to COVID-19 mandates. Fletcher led Reichert 65.1 percent to 34.8 percent, according to early results.
In District 5, Supervisor Jim Desmond was challenged by Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson, a small business owner who is also Vallecitos Water District director. Desmond led Boyd-Hodgson 60.7 percent to 39.2 percent, according to early results.
There were other contested races in the county. Scroll to the bottom of this story for real-time election results.
With the state's new universal mail-in ballot system, many voters had already cast their ballots by the time election day arrived.
More than 580,000 voters in the county had returned their mail ballots as of 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Over 1.9 million mail ballots were sent to registered voters in the county.
A 60 percent county turnout was expected for the election, according to the county registrar's office. There was a 59.93 percent turnout for the California gubernatorial recall election in September 2021 and a 66.42 percent turnout for the gubernatorial general election in November 2018.
As of close of voter registration in October, there were 1,925,738 total registered voters in the county. Of the registered voters, 799,375 were registered as Democrats, 519,234 were registered as Republicans, 487,197 were registered as nonpartisan and 119,932 were registered as other, according to the county registrar's office.
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