Narrator: It’s election night in Santa Barbara and two seats are open on the Santa Barbara City Council. In 2015, Santa Barbara moved to District elections in an attempt to diversify the makeup of city council members. 

Cathy Murillo: The good thing about district elections is the representative can really focus on his or her district. The only concern is if they get a little too interested in their district and not really focusing on city-wide issues. 

Gregg Hart: This is the first time we’ve had an election like this without the mayor’s race, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Narrator: This election is also unique because Santa Barbara has decided to contract the counting of the ballots out to Los Angeles County. 

Oscar Gutierrez: Unfortunately we just didn’t have the resources to do it in-house or even in- county. It’s pretty nerve-wracking because with my election last year we knew by the end of the night that I won. But I can only imagine what the candidates are feeling that they have to wait almost a week. 

Narrator: In District 2, covering the Mesa and City College, five candidates look to replace Randy Rowse, who is stepping down due to term limits. Mike Jordan came out ahead in the District 2 election.

Mike Jordan: Feeling good, feeling good that the message was received well on the Mesa. I had a great team to help and I’m looking forward to seeing the final numbers on Friday.

Narrator: Despite being several hundred points behind Mike Jordan and Brian Campbell, Teri Jory remained optimistic throughout the night.

Teri Jory: I am going to continue our movement, and continue down the road to making the changes that Santa Barbara needs and making sure everybody’s voice is heard. 

Narrator: In District 1, which covers the Eastside, incumbent Jason Dominguez is looking to hold onto his seat against rising neighborhood activist Alejandra Gutierrez and long-time community resident Cruzito Cruz.

Alejandra Gutierrez: I’m feeling very confident, I’m 31 votes behind and going against an incumbent, being a first-time runner, it feels really awesome. Win or lose I’m still going to be contributing to the community and bringing in resources to District 1. 

Jason Dominguez: So far it’s great. I’m really happy to have the lead. We had an amazing team of volunteers and supporters who worked really hard. We got a lot of new voters out to vote who’d never voted before. So there’s a lot of reasons we’re very happy. 

Cathy Murillo: I’m feeling good, but you never want to take anything for granted, and of course we respect whatever the voters decide.