ORANGE COUNTY’S election count is finished (Shutterstock),

Three and a half weeks after Election Day, Orange County’s ballots have all been counted and official results revealed  on Friday.

The OC had a 54.7 percent turnout with 994,227 people voting, with 830,162 of them via mail or by visiting drop-off locations.

Two close races in the West Orange County area remained tight until the end, but the leading candidate in each held on. In the contest for three spots on the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees, Morgan Westmoreland held on to third place, outpolling John Briscoe 12,749 (19.55 percent) to 12,669 (19.43 percent). a margin of 80 votes.

The District 1 seat on the Westminster City Council was decided by a smaller margin. Amy Phan West received 3,190 votes (50.17 percent) to John Gentile’s 3,169 (49.83), a margin of 21.

Two ballot measures which weren’t close but that are expected to have a big impact on city treasuries are Huntington Beach’s Measure O, authorizing the taxation of cannabis business in the city, and Westminster’s Measure Y, which extends a 1 percent sales tax originally approved by voters in 2016.
Measure O passed with 54.67 percent in favor and Measure Y won with 70.13 percent support.