Mike Alvarez-Cohen

Berkeley City Councilmember Lori Droste has never seen her 3 year-old son behave as well as he did when they went to his first city council meeting together. Droste said he now asks her to come to “the castle” with her, their nickname for her office.

Election Day in Berkeley this year saw the impacts of the more than $1 million poured into the city’s most contentious measures — although the final votes yielded mixed results for the election’s biggest spenders.

As of Wednesday evening, District 8 City Council candidate Lori Droste led opponent George Beier by a 0.38-point lead, or 16 votes, according to updated ranked-choice voting results from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.

As of Wednesday evening, two City Council races were still too close to call pending the inclusion of mail-in ballots. Though incumbent Kriss Worthington and candidate George Beier led in their races for District 7 and 8, respectively, the numbers were too close to decisively call the winners.

As of 12:45 a.m., Droste was ahead of three other District 8 hopefuls, with a 1.24-point lead over runner-up Mike Alvarez Cohen, chair of the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board. George Beier, president of the Willard Neighborhood Association, came in third with about 26 percent of the vote. Jacquelyn McCormick, head of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association, came in fourth with 18.9 percent of the vote.

Polls in Berkeley closed at 8 p.m. We’ll bring you the results of Berkeley’s elections right here as they come in.

In Berkeley’s District 8, the retirement of incumbent Councilmember Gordon Wozniak has left the City Council race wide open to four newcomers.

Berkeley’s November election will feature several controversial ballot measures and three contested council seats, including a historic soda tax and the first council race to take place in a new student supermajority district.

An LGBT political group voted to back two candidates running for Berkeley City Council on Wednesday evening, in the midst of endorsement season before the November general election.

Four candidates have filed their candidacy to run for the Berkeley City Council seat in District 8, following the implementation of new district lines.