In early election results, Los Altos appears to have re-elected two incumbents to City Council, Sally Meadows and Jonathan Weinberg, and a newcomer, Larry Lang, who wants to improve downtown cellphone service and keep the city out of costly lawsuits.
It appears Ibrahim Bashir, who was the target of a campaign that questioned his attendance record at library commission meetings, has failed to win one of the three seats up for grabs in the election if early results hold. He reported spending $72,776 for the council seat.
Bashir made headlines for spending $10,000 on a TV commercial, which is unusual for Los Altos.
The ad ran on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Hulu, Roku and other TV platforms.
The following ballot totals represent the first batch of ballots counted by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voter: Meadows was first with 5,688 votes, followed by Weinberg (5,170), Lang (4,466), Bashir (3,792) and Eric Steinle (2,159).
Meanwhile, the race for two seats on the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District board was close last night.
Three candidates were running to replace board members Phil Faillace and Sanjay Dave, who decided not to seek an additional term.
In first was Alex Levich with 11,729 votes. But the second place spot was neck-and-neck between Vadim Katz with 10,580 votes and Li Zhang with 10,116 — a 464-vote difference.
Also close last night was Measure EE, the Los Altos School District’s $350 million bond measure to upgrade schools. It was controversial because the Bullis Charter School, which uses Los Altos School District facilities, came out against it.
Looking at early results, the “yes” side had 7,156 votes for 56.4%. The bond needs a 55% majority to pass.
The Los Altos School Board had two open seats — incumbents Steve Taglio and Jessica Speiser — aren’t running again, and two candidates signed up to run for their seats, Stella Kim and Jim Malone. Because nobody else decided to run, the election was canceled.