School Board Recount Reveals Tie, Special Election a Possibility

It's been nearly 24 hours since Tuesday's election for the Long Beach Board of Education ended, and it appears candidates Darlene Tangney and Gina Guma may be headed to another election.

According to District Attorney Neil Block, Tangney and Guma, the two incumbents in the at-large election with three candidates, are currently tied at 1,618 votes apiece, with one vote in question. Tangney is challenging one of the affidavit votes for Guma, which Tangney claims is not clearly a vote for her fellow trustee.

According Block, it is unclear how one elderly voter checked off one of the ballots, so who she voted for is in dispute. If Guma were to lose the vote in question, she would drop down to 1,617 votes, losing the race for the last at-large bid.

A special election is a possibility, Block said. If there was a run-off election, only the two candidates who tied would enter the election. , would be exempt from the special election.

The run-off election would have to be held within 45 days of the initial vote, which puts the cut-off date at July 1.

Mininsky finished with a total of 1,691 votes.

Guma and Tangney campaigned as a team and cited maintaining and enhancing educational programs as their top priorities, touting the district’s proposed $122.1 million budget as one that preserves all programs or services for students.