Yes, The Fat Lady Is Singing...(Amended)

LOOKS LIKE WE'RE DONE
The Orange County Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, and his hardworking staff apparently have completed their task and the final ballots have been counted.  What you see below is what we get.  There is no indication of any subsequent reporting to be made.  Now we await him to send out the notices to the individual districts and cities regarding the results.  However, the fat lady, she is a'singing...  Speaking of which, click on the image below and sing along as you read the results.
ASTOUNDING TURNOUT!
According to the ROV page, HERE, there are 1,535,967 registered voters in Orange County.  of those, 1,239,405 (80.7%) of them actually cast ballots - an astounding number!

THIS SHOULD BE IT!
So, dear readers, here are what should be the FINAL numbers for this 2016 General Election for races that are important to us Costa Mesans.

COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL
Only a couple votes were added to these numbers today.  Sandy Genis continues to lead John Stephens - now by 222 votes.  Stephens leads Allan Mansoor by 2,682 votes.  Mansoor leads Mayor Steve Mensinger by 525 votes for the final seat.  Mensinger has surpassed Jay Humphrey by 190 votes.  Lee Ramos and Al Melone are far, far behind.

COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT
Both incumbents, Jim Ferryman and Art Perry, have been re-elected.  Perry has defeated Gary Monahan for the second seat available by 4,707 votes.  Jim Fitzpatrick and Christopher Luntsford trail the field.

MESA WATER DISTRICT
Incumbent Jim Fisler has soundly defeated challenger Alex Reich.

GROWTH ISSUES
Measure Y, the citizen-generated Smart Growth Initiative, has passed with 68.4% of the votes -  a more than 2-1 margin.  Measure Z, the City-generated measure designed to fool the voters, has also passed, but by a much smaller margin.

FAIRVIEW PARK ISSUES
Measure AA, the citizen-generated initiative created to protect Fairview Park from development, is passing by much more than a 2-1 margin - almost 71% of the votes cast.  Measure BB, the City-generated measure designed to fool the voters, has failed.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUES
Both citizen-generated Medical Marijuana issues, Measures V and W, have failed at the ballot box by significant margins.  Measure X, the City-generated measure that has no retail sales element, only manufacturing, testing, distribution in a small section of the city, has passed.

VOTE-BY-DISTRICTS
This measure, hijacked by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer to ignore the will of the people and add 6 districts and a directly-elected mayor to the mix, has passed.  Shame on Righeimer for diluting the potential Latino vote by this deception.

HOSTILE TAKEOVER OF CMSD BY MESA WATER
This meaningless advisory measure, placed on the ballot to fool the rate-payer of Mesa Water and the Costa Mesa Sanitary District into thinking the combination of those two organizations is a good idea, has "passed".  It means nothing and was, once again, a waste of rate-payer dollars by the Mesa Water Board.  No wonder they want to get their hands on the CMSD cash!

COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
All incumbents in these races won - handily.

NEWPORT MESA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
All incumbents in these three races won, too.

74TH STATE ASSEMBLY DISTRICT
Matt Harper has defeated Karina Onofre.

37TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT
John Moorlach has defeated Ari Grayson.

48TH UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE
Dana Rohrabacher has defeated Dr. Suzanne Savary.

WHAT'S LEFT TO COUNT? (AMENDED)
The Registrar of Voters page has not updated these numbers, and show no counter as to when the next report will be made, so we're assuming that ALL votes have been counted.  There were only 152 left to count at the beginning of this day.  Now we wait for Kelley to post that "Final Results" note on his page and certify the races.
(AMENDED)
Kelley's mininons finally got this segment updated, so I'll post the individual entries here so you can archive the results.  Indeed, there are NO MORE BALLOTS LEFT TO COUNT:
Total estimated number of ballots counted (After Election Day): 416,994
Total vote-by-mail ballots counted: 98,806
Total provisionals counted: 130,300
Total Vote-by-mail ballots returned at the polls counted: 146,674
Total election day paper ballots counted: 27,014
Total Eligible Vote-by-Mail Ballots received after Election Day: 14,200

NEW COUNCIL TO BE SWORN-IN ON DECEMBER 13TH.
So, that's it for this cycle.  The new members of the Costa Mesa City Council will be sworn-in at a special meeting on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 and new leaders - Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem - will be selected.  Here's something for all of us to contemplate as we think back on this election.

My Independence Day...

HOPE YOUR HOLIDAY WAS FUN
We here at A Bubbling Cauldron hope you all had a safe and sane Independence Day this year.  We spent our holiday where we could grab a taste of small town Americana and not have to worry about a week of illegal fireworks ruining our sleep and causing neighborhood pets to become apoplectic.

NO FIREWORKS, PERIOD!
We journeyed to the small Central Coast community of Cambria, where being found even possessing fireworks - "legal" or illegal - carries with it a MINIMUM $2,000 fine!  As a result, during our several-day visit we heard NOT ONE firework being discharged - except on the evening of the 4th, when the entire community gathers to watch a professional fireworks show being shot off from the beach.

THEY MANAGE WITHOUT THEM
I couldn't help but contemplate how this little community - right at 6,000 permanent residents - manages to get along without so-called "safe and sane" fireworks when we here in Costa Mesa seem to be unable to even contemplate life without them.

ONE DAY OF CELEBRATION
They condense the celebration into one day - July 4th.  They have an all-day party in a large municipal park right at the beach.  Thousands of residents and visitors to this tourist-oriented town gather for food, music and fun.

FRIENDLY COMPETITION
There are waiter/waitress races, where teams from local restaurants have a great time competing against each other for bragging rights for a year.

PIES
There are pie-eating contests sponsored by a local establishment famous world-wide for their Olallieberry Pies.  These contests are a hoot!  Contestants must eat a pie hands-free with the ten-minute time limit with no assistance except from a "scraper", a person who helps keep the pie stacked in front of the eaters.  So, it's face-down, gobbling the pie until not a morsel is left on the table.

FACE DOWN AND FURIOUSLY EATING
The boys and girls and the women eat small pies but the men must devour a full-size FOUR POUND Olallieberry pie.  The record, set last year, is five minutes, eleven seconds - set by the fellow who finished a distant second this year.  The winner this year finished well over seven minutes.

QUEEN COVERED IN PIE
In the women's competition, contestants from the Miss California Mid-State Fair competition - including the the recently-crowned Queen, Sabrina Dunn from nearby Templeton - participated.  In fact, Dunn won the pie eating contest!  Last year's queen, and a runner-up this year, Eloida Moore from Cambria, also competed.  When was the last time you saw a beauty queen with pie jammed up her nostrils?

FOOD
There were stands selling hot dogs, hamburgers, tri-tip sandwiches, drinks, strawberry shortcake, corn on the cob, pies and Independence Day baubles as fundraising events for a variety of community needs.

FUN
There were families making a real celebration of it, with pop-up shade shelters, coolers full of food, beverages and lots of fun and games.

MUSIC
There was music from the permanent bandstand from 9:00 a.m. until the fireworks began more than half-a-day later.

A PERFECT DAY FOR A FIREWORKS SHOW
The highlight, of course, is the discharge of the professional fireworks show that begins after dark - this year it started at 9:15 - and continues for around 45 minutes, or until all the shells have been fired out over the ocean.  Friday was an overcast day - as is the case most days on the Central Coast this time of the year when the intense heat inland Paso Robles environs pulls a blanket of fog ashore along the coast.  Sometimes that fog lingers into the night and the fireworks are just colorful puffs in the clouds.  This year, though,  at sundown the fog - right on cue - withdrew a few miles offshore and the celebration proceeded under a cloudless sky with a chunk of moon looking down.

INCREASED SAFETY PRESENCE AT HOME
In the meantime, back here at home our public safety folks were out in force, trying to protect the city.  According to sources, Fire Chief Dan Stefano had a few extra staffers on duty for the day and night.  He had three arson investigators teamed up with police officers for much of the night.   I'm told we had approximately half our police force on duty on Friday - including Chief Tom Gazsi, who was in uniform, on the streets trying to maintain peace on a day when the combination of patriotic revelry, safe and sane fireworks masking the use of illegal stuff and too much alcohol created some difficult times - including a tragic event where an allegedly-drunk woman crashed into two people who were in the middle of West Wilson Street setting off fireworks, HERE.  According to sources, both those young people remain in a trauma unit with serious injuries.

GOD BLESS AMERICA
So, neighbors, I hope you paused to recall what this holiday is supposed to be all about.  Remember the sacrifices that men and women have made over the years to create this wonderful country, and to defend it when challenged.  Now take a moment to watch this short video of Kate Smith singing God Bless America, a song written nearly 100 years ago.... watch as the video plays - you'll likely see some familiar faces.  Ms. Smith...