Anaheim mayor race: Ashleigh Aitken jumps out to a big early lead

Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken opened election night with a commanding lead in her bid for a second term.

In the Orange County Registrar of Voters' unofficial results posted at 8:07 p.m. on Nov. 3, Aitken had 25,153 votes (60.66%). Alfredo Rodriguez was second with 11,936 votes (28.78%), and Imran Sharief had 4,379 votes (10.56%).

That put Aitken ahead by more than 13,000 votes in the first count. These results are not final, and more ballots remain to be counted.

What the early numbers mean

Under the registrar's election-night schedule, the first unofficial results, set for 8:05 p.m., covered vote-by-mail ballots only. In-person votes from vote centers were scheduled to start posting at 9:30 p.m., with more batches at 10 and 10:30 p.m.

A later count on NBC Los Angeles' Orange County results page showed the gap holding as more ballots came in: Aitken at 39,108 votes (56.89%), Rodriguez at 21,871 (31.82%) and Sharief at 7,762 (11.29%). Aitken's share dipped from the first count, but her lead in raw votes grew to more than 17,000.

After election night, the registrar's schedule calls for updated results daily at 5 p.m. until certification. Its list of ballots still to process includes vote-by-mail ballots received after Election Day, drop box ballots, duplicated ballots and conditional voter registrations.

How Anaheim got here

Aitken became Anaheim's first female mayor when she was sworn in on Dec. 6, 2022. She won that year with about 43% of the vote in a four-way race, beating then-Councilmember Trevor O'Neil, Lorri Galloway and Dick Lopez.

The seat had sat empty for more than six months before that. Former Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned in May 2022 after it became public that the FBI was investigating him for alleged corruption tied to the canceled Angel Stadium sale, LAist reported at the time. Aitken had promised to clean up city hall.

Her 2022 win came four years after a razor-thin loss: in 2018, Sidhu beat her by 478 votes, 26,422 to 25,944.

Anaheim's mayor is elected citywide to a four-year term, and the mayor and council members are limited to two consecutive terms. City Council seats are officially nonpartisan. Council Districts 2, 3 and 6 are also on this year's ballot.

What’s next

The Orange County Registrar of Voters posts updated results every day at 5 p.m. until the election is certified, so the totals will keep moving as remaining vote-by-mail, drop box and conditional registration ballots are counted. Check ocvote.gov for the latest numbers.