By Deb Murphy

Both Inyo and Mono counties posted their semi-official 2016 Primary Election results early Wednesday morning. With 56-percent of Mono heard from and 42-percent of Inyo, residents will have to wait until the end of the work work for the final results.

While registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in both counties, significantly more Democrats turned out to vote, with the majority going for Bernie Sanders over the now presumptive candidate Hillary Clinton.

Fifty-four-percent of Mono voters and 55-percent of Inyo felt the Bern. Donald Trump, the last Republican standing, took both counties with 70-plus-percent.

Supervisorial Races: As it stands in local races, Inyo’s 2nd District Supervisor Jeff Griffiths won with 69-percent of the votes over challenger Russ Aldridge.

The only contested Mono County Supervisorial race for District 4 may not be decided until the November election. Incumbent Tim Fesko trails John Peters, 39- to 45-percent.

Mammoth Town Council: With 45-percent of the vote in, Cleland Hoff leads with 31.5-percent, Bill Sauser, 28.2-percent and Jennifer Burrows at 23.4-percent. The write-in, Brent Truax, pulled in 17 percent. The top two candidates will be seated on the Council.

Measure G, extending the parcel tax within the Mammoth School District for another five years won decisively with 78-percent of the vote.

Fifth District Assembly, Mono County Results: Incumbent Fifth District State Assemblyman Frank Bigelow polled 48-percent with Democrat Robert Carabas coming in at 29-percent. With 81-percent of the vote in state-wide, Bigelow held 60-percent with Carabas at 23-percent.

Twenty-Sixth District Assembly, Inyo County Results: Incumbent Devon Mathis leads across the board with 42-percent of the vote in Inyo and 44-percent state-wide. Democrat Ruben Macareno is a close second with 39-percent in Inyo, but trails at 29-percent state-wide.

U.S. House, 8th District: Incumbent Paul Cook held a solid lead in both Inyo and Mono counties with 48-percent and 41-percent respectively. Democrat Rita Ramirez came in second in both with 25-percent in Inyo and 32-percent in Mono. State-wide, Cook holds the lead with 45-percent, but Ramirez is in a tight race for second against Republican Tim Donnelly.

Senate: The state-wide polls got the contest for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat right. The November General Election will give voters a choice of two women Democrats.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris leads, 40-percent, with Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez a distant second at 18-percent.

Mono County voters were more split with Harris pulling down 31-percent against Sanchez’ 16-percent. Inyo went less strong for Harris, 28-percent, with Republican Phil Wyman a close second at 24-percent.

Final results probably won’t be available until Friday.

According to Inyo’s Registrar of Voters, Kammi Foote, two recent law changes will delay the final tally. Prior to this election, all ballots had to be in the Registrar’s hands by 8 p.m. Tuesday. The new law requires a June 7 postmark, but gives the mail-in ballots three days to get to the Registrar.

The second delay will be to give votes whose mail-in ballots were not signed eight days to get signed ballots back to the Registrar.

“We’ll be checking unsigned ballots and getting letters out to those voters Wednesday,” Foote said.