At the end of the evening of the primary election on June 8, there were over 803 ballots uncounted, and in at least one race, the outcome could have changed.

The first-count results showed former supervisor Lee Stetson unseating District 1 Supervisor Brad Aborn by a slim 76 votes. Last Thursday morning, the Mariposa County elections office released the final ballot count for the entire election. Stetson’s victory was confirmed and his margin grew to 102 ballots, or 55.88 percent of the 868 ballots cast.

Of the 803 ballots, 663 were vote-by-mail ballots that were turned in at polling locations. Another 80 ballots were provisional, meaning they had to be authenticated, and the balance were turned in late at the elections office counter of contained some sort of irregularity that the counting machines had rejected.

In the District 3 supervisor race, Janet Mankins-Bibby increased her margin of victory over the other three contenders. In the final count, Mankins-Bibby garnered 62.85 percent of the 1,521 ballots cast. Tolley Gorham finished a distant second with 15.12 percent, barely in front of Floyd Davis Jr. with 13.02 percent and Theresa Castaldi with just 9.01 percent. The incumbent actually outdistanced the total of the three challengers by almost double.

In the highly contested race for Mariposa County Sheriff/Coroner, the results changed very little in the final tally. Undersheriff Doug Binnewies was handily elected to that position with 65.89 percent of the county-wide ballots recorded. His opponent, Sergeant Mark Jones, landed 34.11 percent.

William (Bill) Davis held on to his margin in the race for auditor. Davis’ final count totaled 54.76 of the county-wide votes cast and his opponent, Eric Oster, garnered 45.24 percent.

District Attorney Bob Brown; Treasurer, Tax Collector Keith Williams; and Assessor Becky Crafts all ran unopposed, as did Aaron Rosander for the County Superintendent of Schools post.

In the state races, Mariposa County supported Jeff Denham’s bid for the 19th District Congressional seat. Denham claimed 44.12 percent of the votes cast in the county, and won the republican primary.

In the race for District 14 State Senator, Mariposa County again backed the winner, supporting Tom Berryhill with a 74.98 percent total.

The only winning candidate the county didn’t support was Kristin Olsen, who won the primary on the republican side of the ticket in the State Assembly’s 25th District. Mariposa County supported Kurt Vander Weide with 27.71 percent of the votes in the six-candidate primary. Olsen garnered the second highest total with 19.86 percent.