It’s the 2016 General Election, and in the biannual independent.com tradition, we’ll be using this page to deliver results, reactions, and reports from the various election night parties happening throughout Santa Barbara County.
Our team of reporters — Nick Welsh, Kelsey Brugger, Keith Hamm, and Blanca Garcia — will be out and about to get the scoop while news editor Tyler Hayden holds down the fort at Indy headquarters and write these updates, which typically run late into the evening.
If you’re wondering who’s winning, who’s losing, what they’re saying, and what they’re drinking, this is the page to stay on all night long. Feel free to send feedback and your own reactions to news@independent.com.
[7:04 a.m. UPDATE]
President
(Statewide results)
Hillary Clinton: 5,461,468 (61.4%)
Donald J. Trump: 2,959,147 (33.3%)
Jill Stein: 151,751 (1.7%)
Gary Johnson: 280,428 (3.2%)
U.S. Senate
Kamala Harris: 4,846,109 (62.5%)
Loretta Sanchez: 2,904,697 (37.5%)
U.S. House of Representatives, District 24
Salud Carbajal: 114,270 (53.8%)
Justin Fareed: 98,214 (46.2%)
State Senate, District 19
Hannah-Beth Jackson: 152,233 (62.4%)
Colin Walch: 91,854 (37.6%)
State Assembly, District 37
Monique Limon: 89,221 (63.9%)
Edward Fuller: 50,405 (36.1%)
County Supervisor, District 3
Joan Hartmann: 13,563 (53.96%)
Bruce Porter: 11,511 (45.79%)
Goleta City Council
(Top two)
Stuart Kasdin: 4,641 (30.56%)
Tony Vallejo: 3,559 (23.44%)
Aaron Swaney: 1,769 (11.65%)
Kyle Richards: 4,526 (29.80%)
Dave Haws: 658 (4.33%)
Carpinteria City Council
(Top two)
Fred Shaw: 2,462 (40.01%)
Wade Nomura: 2,504 (40.69%)
Bob Franco: 1,161 (18.87%)
Goleta Water District Board
(Top three)
Bill Rosen: 12,899 (23.89%)
Lauren Hanson: 15,108 (27.98%)
Bob Geis: 7,936 (14.70%)
Rick Merrifield: 9,297 (17.22%)
Jean Blois: 8,553 (15.84%)
Montecito Water District Board
(Top two)
Floyd Wicks: 2,166 (29.57%)
Charles Newman: 1,912 (26.10%)
Tobe Plough: 2,207 (30.13%)
Tom Mosby: 1,022 (13.95%)
Measures
Measure B (Bed Tax Bump)
Yes: 56,491 (51.87%)
No: 52,418 (48.13%)
Measure D (Santa Barbara Marijuana Control Act)
Yes: 18,629 (69.57%)
No: 8,147 (30.43%)
Measure E (Formation of Isla Vista Community Service District)
Yes: 3,627 (87.52%)
No: 517 (12.48%)
Measure F (I.V. Community Service District Utility User Tax)
Yes: 2,612 (62.46%)
No: 1,570 (37.54%)
Measure I (Santa Barbara Unified School District Bond)
Yes: 40,483 (68.55%)
No: 18,575 (31.45%)
Measure J (Santa Barbara Elementary School District Bond)
Yes: 17,954 (70.38%)
No: 7,555 (29.62%)
Ballot Initiatives
Prop. 51 (K-12 and Community College Facilities)
Yes: 4,647,392 (54.0%)
No: 3,964,144 (46.0%)
Prop. 52 (Medi-Cal Hospital Fee Program)
Yes: 5,931,662 (69.6%)
No: 2,591,064 (30.4%)
Prop. 53 (Voter Approval of Revenue Bonds)
Yes: 4,054,456 (48.6%)
No: 4,295,189 (51.4%)
Prop. 54 (Legislative Procedure Requirements)
Yes: 5,361,729 (64.3%)
No: 2,978,121 (35.7%)
Prop. 55 (Tax Extension for Education and Healthcare)
Yes: 5,332,382 (62.1%)
No: 3,254,578 (37.9%)
Prop. 56 (Cigarette Tax)
Yes: 5,530,933 (62.9%)
No: 3,263,146 (37.1%)
Prop. 57 (Criminal Sentences and Juvenile Crime Proceedings)
Yes: 5,482,757 (63.6%)
No: 3,141,268 (36.4%)
Prop. 58 (English Proficiency. Multilingual Education)
Yes: 6,225,201 (72.4%)
No: 2,368,943 (27.6%)
Prop. 59 (Corporate Political Spending Advisory Question)
Yes: 4,278,161 (52.3%)
No: 3,900,721 (47.7%)
Prop. 60 (Adult Film Condom Requirements)
Yes: 3,877,353 (46.1%)
No: 4,538,727 (53.9%)
Prop. 61 (State Prescription Drug Purchase Standards)
Yes: 3,919,722 (46.2%)
No: 4,556,711 (53.8%)
Prop. 62 (Repeal of Death Penalty)
Yes: 3,957,925 (46.1%)
No: 4,636,754 (53.9%)
Prop. 63 (Firearms and Ammunition Sales)
Yes: 5,432,492 (62.6%)
No: 3,244,301 (37.4%)
Prop. 64 (Marijuana Legalization)
Yes: 4,940,799 (56.0%)
No: 3,876,600 (44.0%)
Prop. 65 (Carryout Bag Charges)
Yes: 3,810,658 (44.6%)
No: 4,725,922 (55.4%)
Prop. 66 (Death Penalty Procedure Time Limits)
Yes: 4,197,666 (50.9%)
No: 4,044,794 (49.1%)
Prop. 67 (Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags)
Yes: 4,457,148 (51.9%)
No: 4,125,657 (48.1%)
Election Night Coverage
[Update, 8:05 p.m.]: Indy reporter Kelsey Brugger spent the last few hours of election night in Isla Vista, where she bumped into congressional candidate Salud Carbajal making a literal final dash to drum up votes. Wearing running shoes and jeans, and accompanied by a supportive Rep. Lois Capps, whose 24th District seat he’s hoping to clinch, Carbajal and his team were focusing on Precinct 4 along a row of frat houses that had showed low voter turnout. As Carbajal approached people on the street and asked if they had been to the polls — many of them had, and some said they voted for him — Capps herself knocked on nearby doors. She called the effort bittersweet, as she’d campaigned for so many years and this would be her final time.
Brugger also stopped by St. Marks Church, where a long line of 20-25 voters formed shortly after 6 p.m. A group of elderly women were begrudgingly voting for Hillary Clinton after supporting Bernie Sanders in the primary election. The polling station was staffed by a high school student who’d been volunteering all day. He said he was tired and remained seating. Earlier in the afternoon, he said, the line had grown so long that voters had to wait approximately 45 minutes to mark their ballots. As of 6 p.m., Brugger said, more than 10,000 voters in Isla Vista and UCSB had cast their ballots.
[Update, 8:20 p.m.]: The Arlington Theatre is hosting a viewing party and playing CNN on the big screen. The election night happy hour menu includes soda, popcorn, nachos, pizza, and beer. It also features cocktails — The Trump, a screwdriver, and The Hillary, a margarita. The American is a rum and coke.
[Update, 9:05 p.m.]: Still at the Arlington, the crowd’s sympathies were clear from the cheers, groans, and stunned silencers. As Hillary Clinton performed well, whoops erupted. In the seconds before California polls closed at 8 p.m., the crowd chanted along in countdown fashion. When the state’s 55 electoral college votes were automatically awarded to Clinton, clapping broke out. But as the Big Map showed Clinton struggling in supposedly shoo-in states like Wisconsin, a pall fell over the theater.
Just down the street earlier that night, die-hard supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Salud Carbajal gathered at his State Street headquarters for one last phone bank push. About 20 volunteers ate pizza and exhorted those who hadn’t voted yet to get to the polls. Half a block down the street in front of the Benchmark eatery loomed two very large men wearing white shirts and do-not-pass attitudes. They were bouncers. It was party central for Carbajal’s opponent, Justin Fareed, and traditionally bouncers are not part of the landscape for such events. Inside, organizers put the finishing touches on decorative balloon installations, and the ubiquitous big screen televisions issued forth the latest election results.