LA MESA, California | November 10, 2026. The closely watched November 3 city election remains unsettled as San Diego County continues counting ballots. A November 9 unofficial tally shows a razor-thin 17-vote difference in the La Mesa City Council race. The mayoral contest has a wider but still unofficial margin.
City Council: 17 votes apart
As reported in the November 9 election-count compilation, Amanda-Dawn Natalia had 11,296 votes and Moana Alo had 11,279, with 22,575 votes shown in that contest. The two candidates’ reported shares both round to 50.0%. No winner should be declared on this snapshot. Even a modest number of remaining votes could change the order.
Mayor: Normandy-Dillard ahead
The same November 9 reporting period shows Patricia Normandy-Dillard with 9,409 votes (47.5%), Laura Lothian with 8,260 (41.7%), Quinn M. Reese with 1,147 (5.8%) and Jim Stieringer with 994 (5.0%). Normandy-Dillard’s lead over Lothian was 1,149 votes in that update. The mayoral race will determine who follows term-limited Mayor Mark Arapostathis.
When will the results be final?
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters says additional countywide mail, provisional and conditional-registration ballots remain to be processed. It expects its next unofficial results posting by 6 p.m. Tuesday, November 10. The county expects to certify the election on or before December 3. Voters who need to cure a missing or mismatched signature have until November 25 under the county’s stated process.
Important: All vote counts in this article are a November 9 snapshot, not a live tally or certified result. Follow sdvote.com for the latest official count. LaMesa.com will update the totals when the next release is verified.
