Page One

How Berkeley Voted: Harris 90%; Trump 5%
Trump Vote Lowest in Nation

Rob Wrenn
Thursday December 05, 2024 - 04:00:00 PM

Berkeley
Harris 52,902 89.8%

Trump 3,032 5.1%

Stein 1,593 2.7%

Others 1,399 2.4%

Among U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more, Berkeley has the lowest vote percentage for Trump, with Trump receiving barely more than one in twenty votes.

Other cities of 100,000 or more around the country where Trump received less than 10% are Washington, D.C (6.6%); Detroit (8%); Cambridge, Mass (8.3%); and Oakland (9.2%).



While Trump got trounced, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris did not do as well in Berkeley as previous Democratic presidential candidates. Berkeley is not number one in percentage of votes for Harris. Both Washington D.C. (92.5%) and Detroit (90%) had higher percentages.

Turnout

The number of votes cast for president and for the Democratic candidate this year in Berkeley was the lower than in any election since the 2000 presidential election.

Despite all the concern about the threat that Trump poses for the future of Democracy, the number of Registered Voters in Berkeley dropped from 79,072 for the 2020 election to 74,293 this year. 71,641 were registered for the 2022 November election, with 47,394 of them voting. The increase in voters in presidential election years compared to gubernatorial election years is usually a lot larger than what occurred this year. 

Berkeley Turnout and Winners 

in Presidential Elections 

 

Year  

 

Ballots Cast  

and turnout 

 

Winner in Berkeley with vote and %  

 

2000  

 

54,684  

75.6% 

 

Gore  

42,167 78.1% 

 

2004  

 

60,818  

77.3% 

 

Kerry  

54,409 90.0% 

 

2008  

 

66,703  

77.5% 

 

Obama  

61,134 92.5% 

 

2012  

 

60,559  

73.7% 

 

Obama  

54,163 90.3% 

 

2016  

 

65,430  

78.1% 

 

Clinton  

57,750 90.4% 

 

2020  

 

64,450  

81.5% 

 

Biden  

59,965 93.7% 

 

2024  

 

59,997  

80.8% 

 

Harris  

52,902 89.8% 

 

 

In 2000, Ralph Nader received 13.2% of the vote; and George Bush received 7.8% 

 

Compared to 2020, Harris had 7063 fewer votes than Biden; while Trump had 477 more votes than he received in 2020, and 1001 more votes than he received in 2016. Jill Stein had 921 more votes than Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins received in 2020, though 1354 votes fewer than she received as the Green Party candidate in 2016. 1003 people who cast ballots in Berkeley this year voted for no one for president. 

State Senate District 7 

District total Total Berkeley 

Arreguin 199,928 57.2% 54.2% 

Beckles 149,293 42.8% 45.8% 

When Jovanka Beckles ran against Buffy Wicks for Assembly in 2018, she lost to Wicks in Berkeley by only 250 votes. But running against Mayor Jesse Arreguin for State Senate this year, Beckles lost Berkeley by 4521 votes. 

Beckles had defeated Wicks in the five flatlands districts covering Downtown, Central, South and West Berkeley, and in student areas, which have historically favored more progressive candidates, while losing in the City’s most affluent districts, 5, 6, and 8, which include the Berkeley Hills, which have voted for more moderate candidates. 

Running against Jesse Arreguin this year, Beckles did not win District 1 and only narrowly won District 2. Beckles did best in Districts 3 and 7. When Arreguin was first elected mayor in 2016 in a hotly contested race with Laurie Capitelli, his strongest support was in the flatlands, not the hills. But running for State Senate, he did a lot better in the hills districts, 5, 6 and 8. 

 

 

 

District  

 

Arreguin  

 

Beckles  

 

1  

 

4002 (50.6%)  

 

3855 (49.4%)  

 

2  

 

3529 (49.2%)  

 

3649 (50.8%)  

 

3  

 

3115 (45.4%)  

 

3742 (54.6%)  

 

4  

 

2560 (47.8%)  

 

2798 (52.2%)  

 

5  

 

5702 (61.0%)  

 

3638 (39.0%)  

 

6  

 

4933 (64.4%)  

 

2722 (35.6%)  

 

7  

 

951 (44.3%)  

 

1198 (55.7%)  

 

8  

 

4069 (59.8%)  

 

2738 (40.2%)  

 

 

Total 

 

 

28,861 (54.2%) 

 

 

25,340 (45.8%) 

 

 

State Propositions 

 

Prop 5 Bonds for Affordable Housing and Infrastructure 

Statewide 45.0% Yes 

Berkeley 74.4% Yes 

 

Prop 32 Raise minimum wage 

Statewide 49.3% Yes 

Berkeley 80.8% Yes 

 

Prop 33 Local Government Residential Rent Control 

Statewide 40.0% Yes 

Berkeley 50.3% Yes 

 

Prop 36 Increased Sentencing for Certain Drug and Theft Crimes 

Statewide 68.4% Yes 

Berkeley 35.6% Yes 

 

Alameda County Supervisor, 5th District 

Vote for Nikki Fortunato Bas  

Districtwide 50.1% +425 

Berkeley 50.6% +587 

 

 

District  

 

Bas  

 

Bauters  

 

1  

 

3792 (51.1%)  

 

3632 (48.9%)  

 

2  

 

3739 (55.6%)  

 

2991 (44.4%)  

 

3  

 

3792 (58.9%)  

 

2648 (41.1%)  

 

4  

 

2708 (54.0%)  

 

2311 (46.0%)  

 

5  

 

4071 (46.9%)  

 

4611 (53.1%)  

 

6  

 

3021 (42.7%)  

 

4060 (57.3%)  

 

7  

 

1099 (55.6%)  

 

876 (44.4%)  

 

8  

 

2944 (46.0%)  

 

3450 (54.0%)  

 

 

Total 

 

 

25,166 (50.6%) 

 

 

24,579 (49.4%) 

 

 

 

Recall Alameda County DA Pamela Price 

Districtwide 62.9% Yes 

Berkeley 41.8% Yes 

 

Berkeley Mayor 

Adena Ishii, who has never held any elective office, came in first in 6 of 8 City Council districts, running second to District 5 Councilmember Sophie Hahn only in Hahn’s home district and in homeowner rich District 6 (Northeast Berkeley Hills). Hahn got 51.1% in District 6, the only candidate to top 50% in any district. Hahn’s best precincts were consolidated precinct 520 (north of Solano, 52.6%) and consolidated precincts 010 (55.2%) and 020 (53.3%) in the Northeast Berkeley hills. 

Ishii did not top 50% in any precinct, but topped 40% in 15 of 28 consolidated precincts and won in South and West Berkeley, as well as in Districts 7 and 8. 

Since no candidate received 50%, ranked choice voting determined the final outcome. Kate Harrison’s second choice votes were distributed as follows: 

Ishii: 4846 (40.0%) 

Hahn: 4179 (34.5%) 

No second choice 3088 (25.5%) 

 

With these votes factored in, Ishii ended with 25,156 (51.1%) to 24, 109 (48.9%) for Hahn. Hahn certainly lost some second choice votes of Harrison supporters because of her opposition to the City Council passing a resolution related to Gaza. 

Kate Harrison, who resigned as District 4 councilmember earlier this year, did not top 30% in any district by did best (28.4%) in the Central Berkeley district she represented from 2017 to her resignation. Her resignation evidently turned off a lot of voters. Her best precincts were LeConte consolidated precinct 430 (29.8%) and Downtown consolidated precinct 770 (29.3%). 

As has become the norm, very few people voted in District 7, the student supermajority district. While 9369 people voted for mayor in District 5, a predominantly homeowner district, only 1999 cast a vote for a mayoral candidate in District 7. 

 

Vote for Berkeley Mayor by City Council District 

 

 

District  

 

Ishii  

 

Hahn  

 

Harrison  

 

1  

 

3217 (41.0%)  

 

2695 (34.3%)  

 

1806 (23.0%)  

 

2  

 

2889 (41.5%)  

 

2272 (32.6%)  

 

1608 (23.1%)  

 

3  

 

2924 (43.8%)  

 

1889 (28.3%)  

 

1733 (25.9%)  

 

4  

 

2079 (39.5%)  

 

1547 (29.4%)  

 

1499 (28.4%)  

 

5  

 

3244 (34.6%)  

 

4304 (45.9%)  

 

1734 (18.5%)  

 

6  

 

2160 (28.3%)  

 

3901 (51.1%)  

 

1457 (19.1%  

 

7  

 

791 (36.9%)  

 

635 (31.8%)  

 

494 (24.7%)  

 

8  

 

2674 (39.8%)  

 

2390 (35.6%)  

 

1522 (22.7%)  

 

 

Total 

 

 

19,978 (38.1%) 

 

 

19,633 

(37.4%) 

 

 

11,853 

(22.6%) 

 

 

 

BB and CC – Rent Control Measures 

 

Measure CC, a measure to weaken rent control in Berkeley and divert some public affordable housing funds to for-profit landlords lost by a big margin. It lost in every precinct in Berkeley. 

Measure BB is a tenant backed measure that, among other provisions, limits maximum annual rent increases to 5%; prohibits evictions if a tenant owes less than one month’s rent; and allows tenants in a building to form associations that landlords would have to meet and confer with. It passed by a confortable margin, winning majority support in the flatlands districts and in districts 7 and 8. 

A group sponsored by the Berkeley Property Owners Association, along with various state and national real estate groups funded mailers supporting Measure CC and opposing Measure BB. Councilmembers Mark Humbert (District 8) and Rashi Kesarwani (District 1) joined these real estate interests in supporting CC and opposing BB. But voters in their districts opposed CC. In District 1, Yes on CC got only 32.5% of the votes cast; and in District 8, 37.3%. Measure BB passed in both districts 

 

 

District  

 

Yes on BB  

 

1  

 

4434 (55.5%)  

 

2  

 

4251 (59.8%)  

 

3  

 

4419 (64.9%)  

 

4  

 

3561 (65.9%)  

 

5  

 

4392 (47.6%)  

 

6  

 

3592 (43.3%)  

 

7  

 

1778 (82.3%)  

 

8  

 

3596 (53.1%)  

 

 

Total 

 

 

29,623 (56.0%) 

 

 

 

Measures EE and FF – Fixing Streets and Sidewalks 

Measure EE Yes 23,873 (45.6%) 

Measure FF Yes 31,942 (60.9%) 

Measure FF swept the election, winning a majority in every consolidated precinct. Measure EE topped 50% in 7 consolidated precincts, all them relatively close to the UC campus. In all but one of these, Measure FF got a larger majority. The one consolidated precinct where Measure EE did better than FF was in the Southside near campus. Did the Daily Cal endorsement of Measure EE have some impact? 

 

A Note about Precincts 

The Registrar of Voters reported results, the Statement of Vote, from 32 precincts this year. This includes 28 consolidate precincts, where results are reported from a combination of between 2 and 6 precincts. In most cases, 5 or 6 precincts. One precinct in District 2, precinct 882, is not consolidated with other precincts. There are also 3 extremely small precincts, each with fewer than 40 registered voters that include parts of Woolsey on the city’s southern border. Why these mini-precincts exist, with results reported separately, is unclear to this writer. 

Prior to 2020, the Registrar used to report results from a much larger number of precincts, as many as 108. If someone walked a precinct for a candidate, they could see how their candidate did in that precinct. Now you can only see results for a much larger area. 

For anyone interested in seeing more results, you can find the Statement of Vote in pdf or excel form here: https://acvote.alamedacountyca.gov/election-information/elections?id=252# 

All Berkeley precinct numbers are six digits long. All have the prefix “20” and all end in “0”. When precinct numbers are given above, they consist of the 3 numbers that are between the “20” and the “0”.