Adriana Valencia declared victory Tuesday in the race for AC Transit’s Ward 3 board seat after unofficial returns showed her ahead of longtime incumbent Joel Young, The Oaklandside reported. Alameda County’s unofficial update No. 2, posted at 4:59 p.m. on Nov. 9, listed Valencia at 41,490 votes, or 50.77%, to Young’s 40,226, or 49.23%, a lead of 1,264 votes.
Why it matters: Young, an attorney and director since 2009, led by about six points on election night, The Oaklandside said. The redistricted Ward 3 seat covers Central Oakland, Piedmont and Alameda. Valencia, a Temescal resident, bus rider and tech product manager, told supporters that too few ballots remained for Young to close the gap. The results are unofficial, and the registrar estimated that more than 98% of ballots had been counted as of Nov. 9, with the next update scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13.
Valencia said she wants to focus on service reliability, financial management and equitable fares. “Taking on a 17-year incumbent was never going to be easy,” she wrote. The Oaklandside said it had reached out to Young and had not heard back. The article also noted that an independent investigation found Young had engaged in gender-based harassment of board colleague Sarah Syed, and that calls for his censure grew in October.
In Ward 4, which covers most of East Oakland, Syed was far ahead of educator Gabriel Morales. The same unofficial county report listed Syed at 41,673 votes, or 79.00%, to Morales’s 11,075, or 21.00%. The Oaklandside described that race as a likely blowout.