Quick Take
Read the latest updates from the 2025 special election and see the results for Measures B and C in the city of Santa Cruz and California Proposition 50.
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Welcome to Lookout’s 2025 special election results page. Check back periodically for the latest vote tallies for Santa Cruz city Measures B and C and both county and statewide tallies for California Proposition 50.
Measure C backers declare victory in affordable housing bond battle
Thursday, Nov. 5 — 5:45 p.m.: Supporters of Measure C, an affordable housing ballot initiative backed by housing advocates and Santa Cruz officials, declared victory on Thursday after an updated vote count widened the lead to just over 53%. Proponents of Measure B, a competing ballot measure sponsored by the local real estate industry, acknowledged their effort had failed, earning only about 12% of the votes in favor.
Representatives from both campaigns told Lookout Thursday that they agreed on the results of the vote. “I’m just basking in where we are,” said Housing Santa Cruz County executive director Elaine Johnson, a leading organizer behind the measure. “Because, we prepared.”
Victor Gomez, government affairs director for the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors, which backed Measure B told Lookout: “We both ran very strong and I think very honest campaigns and we let the voters decide,” he wrote, via text
Read the full story by Hillary Ojeda here.
Measures B & C in charts
Both measures required 50% plus 1 of the vote to pass.
Prop 50 in charts
The proposition needs 50% plus 1 of the vote to pass.
What will we know from Tuesday’s results
Tuesday, Nov. 4 — 6 p.m.: Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber said more than 4,000 people voted in person on Tuesday and her office has received about 72,000 mail-in ballots, with more still arriving.
Her office will start by tabulating all of the early voting and mail-in votes that were received through Sunday, aiming to release the first batch of results by 8:10 p.m., shortly after polls close at 8 p.m.
Following the initial release, the office will provide new rounds of results every 90 minutes or so. Those new tallies will include ballots from in-person votes that occurred on Tuesday.
After several rounds of results, Webber said she expects to wrap up for the evening around midnight. At that point, she will announce on the elections department website that the office has finished updates for the night and will provide an estimate for how many and what types of ballots are left to count. The next release won’t be until Thursday at 4 p.m.
Once her team has finished counting all the ballots from Tuesday’s in-person voting, Webber said the elections office will continue counting the remaining vote-by-mail ballots, same-day registrations and provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are those that need to be verified for Santa Cruz County registration before they’re counted. She expects to have all votes counted by Thanksgiving or earlier. The vote must be officially certified by Dec. 2.
Webber told Lookout that turnout is looking good in Santa Cruz County.
“I have to tell you, for a special election, it’s doing pretty good,” she said Tuesday. “As of last night, we were at about 36%, 37% and that’s only going to go up.” — Hillary Ojeda and Kevin Painchaud
County vector control ballot measure results to be revealed Nov. 18
Tues., Nov. 4 — 4 p.m.: Voting also came to an end Tuesday on a separate ballot measure to help fund Santa Cruz County’s mosquito, rodent and vector control services.
The ballot went out to all property owners in the county this fall, asking them to approve an average fee increase of $11.99 per year to fight the spread of communicable diseases like Zika and West Nile virus.
The measure came as county officials warned that a type of mosquito known for spreading yellow fever and other diseases, had reemerged in Boulder Creek, nearly two years after it was eradicated from the county.
The board of supervisors discussed the ballot measure on Tuesday, but official results will not be made publicly available until Nov. 18.
Read the latest on the vector control ballot measure.
Related: Ask Lookout: What is the Santa Cruz County mosquito control ballot that came in the mail?
Measures B and C: How campaign finance shakes out on last day before the vote
Monday, Nov. 3: As the city of Santa Cruz’s dueling housing measures head to the finish line on Tuesday, each campaign has raised several hundred thousand dollars, but where that money comes from differs noticeably. Measure B came entirely from the real estate industry, while Measure C came from a mix of elected officials, housing developers, labor unions and political groups.
Read the full story from Max Chun.
A Lookout View: Yes on Measure C
Oct. 29: Lookout’s editorial board endorsed the city of Santa Cruz’s Measure C, also known as the Workforce Housing Affordability Act. In a pair of editorials, Lookout’s editorial board argues that Measure C could give the city 10 times more power to prevent evictions and build affordable housing, but says the city needs to show more transparency and accountability for how it spends tax dollars on affordable housing.
Read Lookout’s Oct. 3 editorial: A Lookout View: Yes on Santa Cruz’s Measure C – with a caveat
Read Lookout’s follow-up Oct. 29 editorial: A Lookout View: We’ve seen some of the money – we still say yes on Santa Cruz’s Measure C
Fact check: Cutting through the fog of competing affordable housing petitions in the city of Santa Cruz
From April: As the campaigns for Measures B and C began heating up, Lookout did a deep dive into he differences between the competing efforts both claiming to raise money for affordable housing.
Read that explainer from Christopher Neely.