Hospital: Dr. Pandya edges Gill
No other major changes in county's final report
In a surprise, the final results of the Nov. 6 general election showed Dr. Gaurang Pandya edging incumbent Brent Gill for the third seat on the Sierra View District Hospital Board.
Dr. Jasvir Sidhu got the most votes with 9,495, followed by incumbent DickHatfield with 6,653. Incumbent Martha Flores was also defeated.
Gill had appeared comfortably ahead until the final count released after 5 p.m. Friday. The count now shows Pandya with 6,450 votes to 6,370 votes for Gill.
Gill was solidly in third in the voting for the three open seats on election night and led Pandya by 269 otes with several thousands voteby- mail and provisional ballots yet to be counted. That lead dwindled to 99 votes by the count posted on Nov. 16 and it was slightly closer with the results released on Nov. 21.
The County Elections Office reported that all ballots had now been processed. According to the county, only 3,500 provisional ballots remained to be counted from the last report on Nov. 21.
The county did announce it would have another update on Dec. 4.
Rounding out the hospital board race were Flores with 5,950 votes, Dr. Rakesh Jindal with 4,005 and Mark Fazzone with 3,099.
The final results did not change any other races.
Porterville Unified School District’s Measure J failed to get the necessary 55 percent voter approval, although it was favored by a majority of the voters. The final tally shows the $90 million bond measure with 9,740 yes votes (51.26 percent) to 9,260 no votes (48.74 percent).
Lindsay Unified School District’s $26 million bond measure did pass. It received 58.65 percent support. Both bond measures required 55 percent voter approval to pass.
There were no changes to any local school board races or the Lindsay City Council race, where two incumbents were ousted. Elected to the Lindsay council were Rosaena Sanchez, Steven Mecum and incumbent Pam Kimball.
With the final tally, turnout for the election was 70.28 percent, just shy of the 72 percent turnout for the presidential election in 2008. Of those who voted, 40,869 went to the polls and 61,280 voted by mail.
