PCC Board of Trustee Incumbents Struggling in Election Returns

Incumbents continued to struggle in the Pasadena City College Board of Trustee primary election vote count early Wednesday.

Incumbent Berlinda Brown continues to trail in her race against Steve Gibson in the Area 3 race for the Pasadena City College Board of Trustees.

Gibson led the race with 53% of the vote by Wednesday morning.

In the Area 5 race, Kristine Kwong maintained a slight lead over Linda Wah 3,026-2,796. The lead in that race increased after Kwong led by less than 50 votes late Tuesday night. 

Anthony Fellow was the only incumbent with a lead in the PCC races on Wednesday morning. 

Fellow led Alton Wang, 2,588-2,465.

The Board of Trustees was cited in a resolution after a vote of no confidence against college Superintendent / President Dr. Erika Endrijonas by PCC faculty.

The resolution specifically cites Dr. Erika Endrijonas’ requirement — “and, by extension, the Board of Trustees” — that teachers return to in-campus teaching on January 24, “during the worst surge of the ongoing health crisis, and ignoring the distinct danger the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 posed to Faculty, Students, and Staff.”

The County Registrar’s office is not expected to release further vote counts until Friday.

After Election Night in a statewide election, there are still thousands of ballots that need to be counted, including Vote by Mail ballots received on Election Day, provisional ballots, write-in ballots and damaged ballots. These ballots are counted during the 30-day period known as the Official Election Canvass. Ballots also require additional review to verify voters are eligible to vote and write-in ballots were cast for qualified candidates.

California state law requires the County Registrar to complete and certify results within 30 days. This provision of the law recognizes the complexity of completing the ballot count and conducting a thorough audit of the election results to ensure accuracy.

The Registrar’s office said in a statement that it realizes it is difficult for candidates/campaigns involved in close contests to wait for results of the election. The legally mandated processes described above are utilized to guarantee that every vote is counted and included in the official final election returns.