More than a week after the 2022 midterm elections, the Alameda County Registrar’s Office has finalized the counting of votes with the election results for both Alameda County and the city of Berkeley being released Friday. Ballots are still being audited as of press time.

During the most recent election cycle, Berkeley residential voters were given the opportunity to decide upon four Berkeley City Council seats, city auditor, three seats on the Berkeley Unified School District Board and five seats on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. Voters were also asked to decide on three ballot proposals: Bond Measure L, Measure M and Measure N.

Berkeley City Council

For Berkeley City Council District 1, incumbent Rashi Kesarwani will be elected to the seat during the ranked-choice voting process with 52.86% of votes, or 3,443 total ranked-choice votes. Elisa Mikiten received the second-highest percentage of ranked-choice votes, with 47.14%.

In City Council Districts 4 and 7, incumbents Kate Harrison and Rigel Robinson will be elected to the respective seats after having run largely unopposed during the election. Harrison received 3,034 votes for District 4, while Robinson received 673 votes for District 7.

The race for the City Council District 8 seat was ultimately the most contentious, with five candidates running for the same position. Mark Humbert will be elected to the seat during ranked-choice voting with 68.01% of votes, or 3,447 total ranked-choice votes. Mari Mendonca received the second-highest percentage of ranked-choice votes with 31.99%.

City auditor

In another uncontested race for city auditor, incumbent Jenny Wong will be reelected to the position with 36,771 votes.

Berkeley school board

With only three available seats for school board director, the electoral race for Berkeley school board saw six candidates vying for the positions. The three officials-elect are Ka’Dijah Brown with 28.51% of the votes, Mike Chang with 21.77% of the votes and Jennifer Shanoski with 21.69% of the votes.

Berkeley rent board

For Berkeley rent board, there were five commissioner positions available during the election. Soli Alpert received the highest percentage of votes, with 16.41%. He was followed by Nathan Mizell with 14.62% of votes, Vanessa Danielle Marrero with 13.15%, Stefan Elgstrand with 12.18% and Ida Martinac with 11.80%.

Measures

During the Nov. 8 elections, city residents were able to vote on three local ballot measures.

Measure M, a vacancy tax that would impose fees on Berkeley property owners who are in possession of vacant units, passed with 64.86% of votes.

Measure N, which would would allow Berkeley City Council to authorize the construction of affordable housing units, passed with  76.07% of votes.

Unlike Measures M and N, which only required a simple majority to pass, Bond Measure L needed a two-thirds majority, or 66.67% of votes, in its favor. The measure, which would allocate $650 million toward housing projects and infrastructure improvements, failed with 59.32% of votes.