In Encinitas, the races for mayor and the Cardiff seat on the City Council remain neck and neck. It’s unclear how many ballots remain to be counted, but there are a dwindling number countywide.
As of Monday night, Democratic challenger Rimga Viskanta was ahead of independent incumbent Mayor Bruce Ehlers by 57 votes after leading him by 67 votes Friday night. That’s with some 4,000 new ballots counted since Friday.
In District 3, Democrat Arielle Golden saw her lead shrink even more over Republican Ed Sprague. She is now up 63 votes, compared to Friday night’s 109-vote difference. In District 4, Democrat Brad Lefkowits is retaining a significant lead over Republican incumbent Marco San Antonio. He’s now up 987 votes, compared to an 856-vote lead he had on Friday. There were about 1,000 new ballots counted in each council race since Friday.
The count so far consists of over 26,000 ballots cast in the mayor’s race and 6,000 to 7,000 in each council race. Countywide, there are a projected 185,000 votes left to count out of nearly 1.3 million cast. Encinitas has 60,000 residents and 45,841 are registered to vote.
San Diego County voting officials expect to post their next update on Tuesday night and have until Dec. 3 to certify the election results. The winners will be sworn into new terms or into office next month.
The races are technically nonpartisan, but party affiliation can affect fundraising and get-out-the-vote campaigns as well as any number of positions affecting city government.
Viskanta, current San Dieguito Union High School District trustee, and Ehlers have been locked in the tightest race of the three Encinitas elections.
In Cardiff’s District 3, Golden, the former chair of the North County Food Policy Council, and Ed Sprague, a retired firefighter and former Olivenhain Municipal Water District board member, are running to replace Councilmember Joy Lyndes, who is retiring when her term ends next month.
In eastern District 4, which includes New Encinitas and Olivenhain, Lefkowits is a landscape designer and member of the Urban Forest Advisory Committee and Marco San Antonio was appointed to the seat in 2025 to fill a vacancy.
Check back Tuesday night for the next round of results.
