Kean, Leon-Vazquez, Smith Lead Santa Monica-Malibu Board Race

SANTA MONICA, CA — This story was updated at 11:58 p.m.

Santa Monica residents have chosen which candidates they want to represent them on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education with preliminary election results showing Jon Kean leading the race late Wednesday with 20,366 votes, followed by Maria Leon-Vazquez with 19,202 votes and Jennifer Smith with 18,366 votes.

Jason Feldman has 11,748 votes, followed by Keith Coleman with 11,347 votes, Esther Hickman with 10,305 votes, Steven Johnson with 8,364 votes and Dhun May with 6,993 votes.

Many voters already cast their ballot via early voting or mail-in voting due to the pandemic. 83,873 voters registered to vote, with 39 total precincts reporting.

There were eight candidates for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District - Board of Education. Three seats are open for a four-year term. All eight of those candidates live in Santa Monica, which is significant as Malibu could make a move to leave the district.

On Oct. 12, Malibu City Council made an unanimous decision to halt separation negotiations and instead resend a 2017 petition for an independent school district to the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

RELATED: Drati 'Deeply Skeptical' Of Malibu School Separation Plan

Phil Brock is leading in the race for Santa Monica City Council with 16,035 votes as of Wednesday night, followed by Gleam Olivia Davis with 15,787 votes. Christine Parra has 15,029 votes and Oscar de la Torre has 14,483 votes.

Santa Monica City councilmember Kristin Mccowan has 100% of the vote with 27,559 votes reported for a two-year term ending in November 2022.

Two candidates in that race stopped campaigning but appeared on the ballot. Andrew Browning and Dominic Gomez decided not to campaign in the city council election.

"After much thought, the two of us have decided to withdraw from the race for Santa Monica City Council," they said in a letter to the editor published on Surf Santa Monica.

"We withdrew because it became clear that the best way to affect change in Santa Monica was to consolidate the number of candidates challenging the incumbents, incumbents who have overseen the rapid decline of our city."

They instead endorsed the "Change" slate with Phil Brock, Oscar de la Torre, Christine Parra and Mario Fonda-Bonardi.

If de la Torre is elected, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District will potentially appoint another person to fill his seat, Malibu Times reports.

There were eight board of education candidates on the ballot:

• Keith Coleman - Educator/Parent/Economist
• Jason Feldman - Civil Rights Attorney
• Esther Hickman- Parent
• Steven Johnson - Marketing Technology Consultant
• Jon Kean - School Board President
• Maria Leon-Vasquez - Boardmember/College Administrator
• Dhun May - Teacher
• Jennifer Smith - Parent/Community Volunteer

SCROLL TO FIND RESULTS for this race in real-time below (They are sorted alphabetically by city.)

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