Los Angeles County Election Results

Municipal elections were held in four Los Angeles County cities on Tuesday, April 12: Cerritos, Vernon, Lancaster and Whittier. Vernon saw the re-election of Council Member Melissa Ybarra, who ran unopposed. Below are the other results from Tuesday.

There were seven candidates competing for two seats on the Cerritos City Council. The semi-official results show incumbent Frank Yokoyama leading with 2,437 votes and Lynda Johnson in second place with 2,242 votes. Johnson is a Field Deputy for Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. She is also a former ABC Unified School Board Member, a former Field Deputy for LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and a longtime community volunteer.

The semi-official results also show the following ballot measures passing:

• Measure D – Amend the Cerritos City Charter to remove or modify provisions based on superseding and preemptive State law, promote inclusivity through the use of generic personal pronoun references, increase City-wide operational efficiency by eliminating references to outdated business practices, and correct grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors
• Measure E – Amend the Cerritos City Charter to add Section 609, which would prohibit the employment or appointment by the Mayor, City Councilmembers, or City Manager of their relatives by blood or marriage within the third degree
• Measure H – Impose a lifetime limitation of two (2) complete 4-year terms for elected City Council Members

Unofficial tallies show Lancaster Council Members Raj Malhi and Marvin E. Crist coasting to re-election Tuesday with 3,508 votes and 3,446 votes respectively.

“I am honored that the people of Lancaster have re-elected me to be their Councilmember,” Malhi said in a city news release. “I’m excited to once again serve this community with my fellow Councilmembers to support law enforcement, job growth, reduce homelessness, and continue to make this city a great place to live.”

“As a city, we’ve rallied together to help bring change and foster growth in the last few years, and I’m looking forward to keeping that momentum going in these next four years on the City Council,” said Crist.

Lancaster voters also appear to have approved Measure H. It calls on the City Council to adopt administrative fines for loitering or camping within 500 feet of sensitive areas, such as parks, churches, daycares, libraries, or schools.

All eyes were on Council District 2 and the Mayor’s Office Tuesday (in District 4, Council Member Fernando Dutra ran unopposed). As is the case in many cities, the biggest issues facing Whittier are homelessness, housing, and crime.

Mayor Joe Vinatieri ran the table against his two challengers, winning with 81.14% of the vote.

Three residents were competing to replace District 2 Council Member Henry Bouchot, who was not running for re-election. Octavio Cesar Martinez appears to have won that race with 52.16%.