Unofficial Results: Sheppard Defeats Garaventa for City Seat

It´s unofficially official.

That is, while the ballots have still not been sent to the county board of supervisors for certification, a hand-count of the ballots in the Sonora City Council race indicates that incumbent David Sheppard squeaked by candidate Jim Garaventa… by a total of six votes… says Tim Johnson, of the Tuolumne County Elections Department.

“The unofficial totals for the two people running for the third seat is: Dave Sheppard, 651, and Jim Garaventa, 645.”

That means Sheppard will be returning to his seat on the council, and come July 1, will also step up to his turn at being appointed mayor.

So when do the unofficial results become official? Johnson says there´s no huge rush.

“I have 28 days from the Thursday after the election to do that. Hopefully, we´ll be done in a couple of weeks, to finish everything we need to do.”

Calls to the candidates this week have gone unreturned.