Reported by Francisco Ramirez | King’s Network News

Garrett A. Gilcrease has won the Kings County Supervisor District 1 race outright, according to the updated Kings County election results report.

The updated report now lists Gilcrease with 1,853 votes, or 51.26% of the valid votes cast for candidates in the race. That places him above the majority threshold and means there will be no runoff.

The updated numbers show:

Garrett A. Gilcrease: 1,853 votes, 51.26%

Martin Chavez: 1,382 votes, 38.23%

Stefanie Silveira Chavez: 380 votes, 10.51%

Total valid votes cast for candidates: 3,615

Undervotes: 174

Overvotes: 0

Times Cast: 3,789

This update comes after an earlier Kings County report showed Gilcrease at 48.90%, a percentage that appeared to include undervotes in the calculation. Those undervotes represented blank selections where no candidate was chosen in the County Supervisor District 1 race.

King’s Network News previously reported on the issue and raised the question of whether blank selections should be included when calculating whether a candidate received a majority.

The updated report now displays the race based on valid votes cast for candidates. Under that calculation, Gilcrease received 1,853 of the 3,615 valid candidate votes, giving him 51.26%.

That distinction matters.

California Elections Code Section 8140 states that a candidate for a nonpartisan office who receives “votes on a majority of all the ballots cast for candidates for that office” at a primary election shall be elected.

That wording is important. It does not say a majority of all ballots, including blank undervotes. It says ballots cast for candidates for that office. In this race, Gilcrease received a majority of the valid votes cast for candidates.

The 174 undervotes were still reported, as they should be, but they were not votes for Gilcrease, Chavez, or Silveira Chavez. They were blank selections in that specific race.

This means the updated report confirms what the valid vote calculation already showed: Gilcrease received more than 50% of the votes cast for candidates.

As a result, Garrett A. Gilcrease wins the County Supervisor District 1 race outright, and the race will not move to a runoff.

This update also brings clarity to voters who were following the numbers closely. The issue was never about giving any candidate credit for blank votes. It was about whether blank selections should reduce the percentage of the voters who actually selected a candidate.

The updated report answers that question in the final displayed numbers.

Gilcrease now stands at 51.26%, above the majority threshold, securing the District 1 seat outright.