San Marino Mayor Dr. Steven Huang and Council Member Steve Talt are the only candidates who returned papers for the Tuesday, November 5 city council election, according to City Clerk Eva Heter. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a clear path to the finish line as the possibility of one or more write-in candidates entering the fray still exists.
Huang, Talt, James Abbott and Scott Kwong all pulled papers ahead of the Friday, August 9 deadline, but only the two incumbents filed for candidacy. Under some circumstances, the election could be canceled, but since a continuation of the city’s Safety Tax is still under consideration, such will not be the case. A period for potential write-in candidates to register will open on Monday, September 9 and close on October 22, according to Heter.
Write-in candidates must pull and file papers, collect signatures and receive clearance from the registrar of voters, according to Heter. “It’s basically the same process for any candidate,” she said.
In order to comply with regulations set forth by the State of California, the new terms of Huang and Talt will be for five years and expire in 2024. The terms of Vice Mayor Gretchen Shepherd Romey, Susan Jakubowski and Ken Ude will expire in 2022 in order to match the State election cycle and increase the number of voters who cast ballots.
Talt (1,635 votes) and Huang (1,185) easily outdistanced Kwong and then-incumbents Dennis Kneier and Eugune Sun in November 2015. At that election, just 2,594 voted, though the city at the time had 8,419 registered.
