City Council keeps two, adds Dale Welty

Dale Welty

After a week of watching the County of Riverside release a daily trickle of results of mail-in votes, it has become evident that newcomer Dale Welty and the two incumbents, Jordan Ehrenkranz and Larry Greene, have been elected to the Canyon Lake City Council.

Huge numbers of mail-in ballots brought Riverside County Registrar of Voters’ count of ballots to a near halt. Mixed in with over 400,000 mail-in ballots were a few thousand ballots cast by those in the City of Canyon Lake. Late the night after the election, only about half of the ballots for the three seats on the Canyon Lake City Council had been counted.

Jordan Ehrenkranz

Now, as of a week later (Wednesday night), the county had counted 5,629 Canyon Lake voters’ ballots. It is likely there will be more votes to count, but as of Wednesday the count was: Dale Welty (2,710), Jordan Ehrenkranz (2,659), Larry Greene (2,447), Jim Randle (1,709) and Paul Kakis (1,592). It is virtually impossible that Jim or Paul can make up the difference to get into the top three with approximately 700 voters’ ballots yet to count.

The county still has 139,000 votes to count (which includes provisional ballots), but the City of Canyon Lake probably has only about 700 voters’ ballots left to count. Canyon Lake has always been one of the cities in the county with the highest voter turnout. An almost unheard of 80% Canyon Lake turnout would yield 6,366 voters, which is only 737 more ballots than has been counted. As of Wednesday evening, the city had already passed a 70% turnout (70.73%), with more ballots being counted.

Dale, although a first-time councilmember, has had plenty of Canyon Lake governmental experience. He served two terms on the Canyon Lake POA board before throwing his hat in the city ring. This will be Jordan’s fourth 4-year term on the city council and Larry’s second term.

The three join sitting city councilmembers Mayor Pro-Tem Kasey Castillo and Jeremy Smith, both of whom have two years left on their current terms. Randy Bonner did not choose to re-run and will wrap up his service at the next council meeting.