Women dominate Catalina election

After somewhat of an agonizing delay, the L.A. County Registrar finally cleared the decks and announced the official vote tally for the April 10 election on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Acting City Manager Denise Radde said election results could not be released from the April 10 election until 113 provisional ballots could be processed by the Los Angeles County Registrar, which was completed Tuesday morning.

Totals released by the city of Avalon indicate 965 votes were cast, indicating a 52.7 percent turnout, one of the highest in L.A. county.

Incumbent mayor Anni Marshall won reelection by a margin of 517 votes for Marshall (57 percent) to 390 votes for former mayor Bob Kennedy.

She will now serve Avalon for a new two-year term (see related story).

In the race to fill two city council seats, incumbent Cinde McGugan-Cassidy finished first (by a wide margin) and was re-elected to a new, four-year term (see related story).

Of all the votes cast for council candidates, MacGugan-Cassidy finished with 487 votes.

In somewhat of a surprise, former city attorney Pam Albers finished next with 407, upsetting incumbent Joe Sampson, who was also forced to compete as a write-in candidate. Sampson received 210 votes.

Former city official Steve Hoefs was next with 391 votes, followed by former mayor Ralph Morrow with 129 votes and newcomer Mark Alft got 100 votes to round out the field.

According to the official results, the Measure T initiative, a ballot measure that could have generated up to $2 million per year to pay for a new hospital, failed by a vote of 392 votes for and 497 votes against (52 percent).