PLEASANTON, CA — The polls are closed in Alameda County, and the first countywide results are trickling in.
Preliminary results show incumbent Mayor Jack Balch with a healthy lead over challenging Councilmember Julie Testa. As of 8:49 p.m., Balch leads Testa 69.9% to 30.1%, or 9,831 to 4,235 votes. In District 2, Zone 7 Director Kathy Narum also maintains a healthy 61.8-38.2% lead over tech entrepreneur Vin Kruttiventi. In District 3, former PUSD Board Member Jamie Yee leads business owner and community activist Reena Gupta 63.7% - 36.3%.
Measure HH, a bid to raise the city's Transient Occupancy Tax from 8% to 12% over the next two years, also leads by a healthy margin.
Millions of voters and election officials wait not only for the results but also for the president's reaction. Trump's Justice Department spent the final two weeks of the campaign season issuing subpoenas to California election officials and suing to block 20,000 Golden State ballots from being counted amid allegations of illegal voting. The Justice Department issued subpoenas for multiple California election officials to appear in court the day after the election.
Amid that contentious backdrop, Californians cast their ballots for a new governor, and elected former Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra as governor. In Alameda County, Becerra leads Republican challenger Steve Hilton 80.4% to 19.6% as of 9:30 p.m. Statewide, Becerra is winning 61-34%.
The outcome of dozens of down-ballot primary races also hangs in the balance in Alameda County, where voters are waiting to find out who came out ahead in dozens of local races, as well as congressional races for the 10th, 12th, 14th, and 17th Congressional Districts, the California State Assembly races for the 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th, and 24th Assembly Districts, and the 10th California Senate District.
Scroll down for real-time Alameda County election results.
Click here to track your ballot and make sure it is counted.
As of September, the California Secretary of State reported that 23,164,977 Californians were registered to vote, which accounts for more than 85 percent of the state's eligible voting population.
Not surprisingly, there are far more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state, with 45 percent for the former and 25 percent for the latter.
In Alameda County, the rate of voter registration is high. As of September, it was 83.75 percent — with 57.72 percent of voters registered as Democrats, and 12.05 percent registered as Republicans.
Click here for all County election results. Be sure to refresh this page for the latest.
Based on early voting, California is poised to see 60 percent of registered voters head to the polls, a record for a gubernatorial race, Paul Mitchell, of political data analysis firm Political Data told The San Francisco Chronicle.
While the governor's race was expected to be called early Tuesday, it's California's congressional races and ballot measures poised to offer the biggest upsets and surprises. Hanging in the balance is control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mitchell predicted that five key redrawn congressional districts appear poised to deliver Democratic victories driven, in part, by high turnout among Latino voters.
"I think the blue wave is on track," Mitchell told The Chronicle. "It seems to be on track that we're going to have a really strong turnout."
So far, voter turnout has been higher in competitive races such as the Central Valley's District 22 and the 48th Congressional District in San Diego — two districts Democrats hope to flip after their mid-decade gerrymander.
As of Oct. 29, Democratic voters represented 51 percent of ballots returned statewide compared to just 28 percent among Republican voters, according to the Political Data tracker.
Here are the races Pleasanton voters will help decide.
Patch reached out to the six candidates running for office in Pleasanton. Two candidates each are running for mayor, District 1, and District 2.
See here for a map of the districts, and to find out which district you're located in.
For the mayoral race, incumbent Jack Balch is being challenged by Julie Testa, who currently represents District 3.
In District 1, tech entrepreneur Vin Kruttiventi is running against Kathy Narum, the director of Zone 7 Water Agency and a Pleasanton City Councilmember from 2013 to 2022.
In District 3, business owner and community activist Reena Gupta is running against Jamie Yee, who currently works in communications for Alameda County Health and served on the Pleasanton Unified School Board from 2008 to 2020.
We asked each candidate several questions on issues important to Pleasanton, including housing, crime prevention, the structural budget deficit, and why they feel they are the best candidate to address them. Read their answers below.
Mayor:
District 1:
District 3:
Patch reached out to the three candidates running to represent Area 5 of the Pleasanton Unified School Board of Trustees. Area 5, located in southeastern Pleasanton near Pleasanton Middle School, is represented by Justin Brown, who opted not to seek re-election.
In Area 2, Laurie Walker is running unopposed.
We reprinted their answers to top issues facing the district, including the budget shortfall, declining enrollment, and why they feel they're the best candidate to tackle these issues. Candidate Brett Martinez did not respond, despite attempts to contact him.
Most of Pleasanton will vote in the race for Assembly District 16, a contest between Democratic incumbent Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Republican challenger Joe Rubay. Residents of parts of eastern Dublin will vote in the race for Assembly District 20, a contest between Democratic incumbent Liz Ortega and Republican challenger Patricia Muga, a Dublin resident and real estate appraiser.
District 16:
Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, an Orinda resident and former environmental lawyer, was first elected to the Assembly in 2018. Her 2026 campaign emphasizes online safety and AI, protecting homeowners insurance, increasing funding for public education, and protecting reproductive rights.
Joe Rubay, a local business owner who has served on the Contra Costa County Fair Board and as chair and vice chair of the Alamo Police Services Advisory Committee, emphasizes parental rights in education, tougher approaches to crime, and opposing state policies that encourage higher-density housing in suburban communities.
District 20:
Liz Ortega, a San Leandro resident, was elected in 2022 after serving as the first Latina to lead the Alameda County Labor Council. Her campaign has emphasized lowering living costs, strengthening worker protections, expanding health care access, and protecting public education.
Patricia Muga is a Dublin resident and real estate broker who serves on the Alameda County Republic Central Committee. Her campaign emphasizes reducing government regulation, improving government transparency, and public safety.
Pleasanton will get to weigh in on a congressional race that attracted national attention. CA-14, encompassing much of the East Bay, was left vacant after former Congressman Eric Swalwell resigned amid sexual assault allegations.
Aisha Wahab, a former Hayward City Council member and California state senator, narrowly defeated Melissa Hernandez, president of the BART board and former mayor of Dublin, in a special election in August. She was sworn in September.
Wahab and Hernandez will face off again in November for a two-year seat. Both candidates are Democrats, though Wahab is generally seen as the more progressive candidate, emphasizing affordable housing, expanded social services, civil rights, and addressing corporate practices that contribute to high costs.
Hernandez emphasizes job creation, small-business growth, housing construction, public safety, and reducing health care costs. While both candidates prioritize affordability, Wahab emphasizes expanding social programs, while Hernandez focuses more on economic development.
Measure HH will ask voters to consider raising the city's Transient Occupancy Tax, levied on hotels, from 8% to 10% effective July 1, 2027, and from 10% to 12% effective July 1, 2028. The measure is projected to generate roughly $1.4 million in the first year and $2.8 million annually once fully implemented.
California voters headed to the polls Tuesday, facing high gas and grocery prices, the effects of climate change on wildfires and rising seas amid a shortage in insurance coverage and the ever-present housing affordability crisis.
The governor's race was somewhat anticlimactic following a chaotic primary with a crowded field of candidates roiled when the frontrunner was forced to step down amid sexual assault allegations. Since then, Becerra maintained a steady lead over Hilton in the polls.
In the final days of the election, a new SurveyUSA poll showed Becerra with a 22-point lead.
All 52 of California's Congressional seats were on the ballot.
Congressional races across California were under intense scrutiny following voter approval of Proposition 50, a partisan redistricting measure expected to reshape the state's political map. Thanks to the redistricting, only a handful of districts were truly competitive. Democrats hoped to flip as many as five Republican House seats in a bid to overturn the GOP's slim House majority.
Democrats think they can flip as many as five seats, with four seeming very much in reach, according to the polls. Both parties are spending like control of the House is on the line.
There were 14 statewide propositions on the ballot this week. Arguably, the most hot-button ballot initiatives involve taxation. Proposition 40 is the highly discussed billionaire tax, while Propositions 41 and 42 aim to counter the measure. Proposition 3 also addresses taxes on the state's highest earners.
Click here for real-time results for all of California's ballot measures.
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