Measure V appears to have narrowly failed as ballot counting nears end

A mere 238-vote margin rejects the 1,800-home Village Farms proposal

At long last, two weeks after the polls closed, it appears that the voters of Davis did not approve Measure V, the 1,800-home Village Farms proposal on farmland just northeast of town.

While the “Yes” side narrowed its deficit by 32 votes in the latest release of 268 ballots, “No” continues to lead by 238 votes with an estimate of just under 200 votes yet to be counted.

The tally now has “No” with 11,569 votes (50.52 percent) to “Yes” with 11,331 votes (49.48 percent).

Whether anyone will request a recount remains to be seen.

It has been a long and sometimes contentious campaign, with each side describing the project and its effect on Davis in vastly different terms.

Still, it was nowhere near as contentious as the 4th Congressional District race where incumbent Mike Thompson came in first and faces a runoff in November against fellow Democrat Eric Jones.

Some folks may like mud-slinging such as we saw in the 4th Congressional District race, but I prefer the way Yolo County Superior Court judge candidates Ryan Davis and Diane Ortiz ran their campaigns.

Davis ultimately prevailed in a close race.

The judge campaign was above board, clean and honest, one highly qualified person against another highly qualified person.

Ortiz conceded by saying, “I sent him a congratulatory message, knowing he would have done the same for me.”

But she’s not giving up her dream.

“While this isn’t the outcome we hoped for, it hasn’t lessened my passion or determination to one day serve the Yolo County community from the bench.”

I hope one day she gets there.

Meanwhile, unwilling to admit defeat, President Trump and his loyal band of merry men continue to claim that California’s primary election was rigged.

How it was rigged they’re not saying, but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says the whole process “stinks to high heaven” and the plan was so “diabolical” that it’s impossible to prove that cheating actually existed.

In other words, this was cheating so sophisticated that it makes the election look fair and honest.

I didn’t know California’s Democrats were that smart.

But given that our beautiful state is made up of 58 counties, all of which count their ballots separately from one another, this was one grand conspiracy without a single whistleblower, even in counties with a Republican majority of registered voters and elected officials.

Trump and his followers are particularly incensed that their MAGA man Spencer Pratt did not make it into the runoff for mayor of Los Angeles.

While mistakenly believing that this was a Top Two Primary, these folks were incensed that Pratt was second in early voting, but slipped to third behind two Democrats in the final tally.

Vice President J.D. Vance, who clearly skipped the course on Logic 101 when he was attending the Yale Law School, cited his case for fraud to an audience that nodded wildly in approval.

Vance pointed out when the first handful of ballots were counted, “You had Karen Bass in first place, Spencer Pratt in second and this other woman in third.”

Added Vance, “Logically, you would expect this same basic pattern to repeat itself” when the next batch of votes came in.

Well if that’s the case, let’s just count the first batch of votes in every election and then call the thing off without counting any other ballots.

Concluded our highly educated vice president, “So it’s a Democrat versus a Democrat. That seems pretty shady to me.”

The unnamed “other woman” that Vance didn’t bother to pay attention to actually has a name — Nithya Raman.

When all was said and done, incumbent Karen Bass had 34.2 percent of the vote, Raman 29.0 percent and Pratt 25.5 percent.

Presumably, according to Vance, Bass is the one cheating here.

But wait, if she’s the cheater, why didn’t she just move the needle behind her name to 50.1 percent and there would be no November runoff at all?

The fact that the incumbent mayor could draw only one-third of the vote means she’s in big trouble.

Given that voter registration in the City of Los Angeles is 56.1 percent Democrat to 15.9 percent Republican, you better believe that Bass would much prefer to be running against Pratt in November than a fellow Democrat.

If she fixed this thing, she did a terrible job of it. In fact, I won’t be surprised if Raman is the winner come November.

I’d advise President Trump, Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson — and anyone who attended the UFC fight on the White House Lawn that ended with an ugly gender-reveal of a former First Lady — to hop on Air Force One and head directly to the City of Angels.

All of our California ballots are printed on paper and are open for inspection. So get out your magnifying glass and prove that Spencer Pratt got more votes than Nithya Raman.

And then, when you learn the truth, put your heads between your legs like bad puppies and leave California alone.

Reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com