2024 was an election year which impacted people on the local, state, and national level with 82.29 percent of Nevada County’s registered voters making their way to the polls on Election Day in November. Nationally, only 63.9 percent of registered voters made their way to the polls and in the State of California 71 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.
As a result, Nevada County went blue again and is the only Sierra Nevada county to remain blue amidst a sea of red rural California counties.
In Nevada County final results showed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were the favorite Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates with a 12.24 percent county-lead over President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
Nationally, Trump and Vance won the election with 312 electoral votes, and Harris lost with only 226 electoral votes. The election was called in the early hours of the morning after Election Day by the Associated Press.
During the presidential primary election in March, Joe Biden was the candidate chosen by the Democratic Party nationwide; however, Biden announced he would drop out of the race in July, leaving Vice President Harris the top contender for the Democratic Party.
Democrat Adam Schiff won in the Senate over Steve Garvey in Nevada County and statewide by a large margin.
Republican Kevin Kiley won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s Third Congressional District; however, voters in Nevada County favored Jessica Morse by 8.66 percent.
Supervisors selected during March Primary
Leadership at the county level was decided in the March Primary Election with voters choosing incumbent Supervisor Heidi Hall to represent District 1 with a strong lead over her opponents Sue McGuire and Michael Taylor.
Newcomer Robb Tucker won the seat on the Board of Supervisors over three other opponents for District 2, which Supervisor Ed Scofield stepped down from after finishing his term this last month.
Supervisor Hardy Bullock ran unopposed for District 5 on the Board of Supervisors for Nevada County.
The seats for Supervisor District 3, and District 4 currently held by Lisa Swarthout, and Sue Hoek respectively, are not up until December of 2026.
Grass Valley, Nevada City Council elections
Locally, the race for a seat on the Grass Valley City Council resulted in the reelection of Jan Arbuckle and Tom Ivy, though voters replaced incumbent Bob Branstrom with Joe Bonomolo, who earned 143 more votes than Branstrom.
Matthew Coulter, U.S. military veteran and resident of Grass Valley, ran for a seat on the council for the second time, and intends on running again in 2026.
In Nevada City, city council seats were returned to all three incumbents who ran unopposed during the March Primary Elections, including Doug Fleming, Daniela Fernández, and Gary Petersen.
Sales Tax Measures for Nevada City and Grass Valley pass
The March Primary also determined sales tax increases in both Nevada City and Grass Valley.
Nevada City voters passed Measure C, a specific sales tax increase of 0.5 percent that is to be used exclusively to fund a locally controlled Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Program. The measure passed by a large margin with 69.20 percent of the votes in favor and community members expressing that they appreciated the specific tax over a general fund tax.
In Grass Valley voters barely passed the Measure B general tax proposal by a margin of only 20 votes. The measure increased the city’s sales tax by 0.375 percent to raise funds which can fund firefighting personnel, wildfire risk land management, and other fire safety measures.
The results of Measure B were challenged with a three-party lawsuit filed by Patti Ingram-Spencer versus the Nevada County of Registrar of Voters, Natalie Adona, and the City of Grass Valley regarding the passing of Measure B sales tax and the close election results.
Ingram-Spencer, a former Councilmember and Mayor of Grass Valley, filed a lawsuit, called an election challenge, stating she believed illegal votes were cast in the March 5 election where Grass Valley voters approved the City’s Measure B.
The suit was dismissed due to lack of evidence ballots were sent to people that she believed should not have received ballots and voted.
Nevada County Elections Office snafus
The November Presidential Election wasn’t without issue for the staff at the Nevada County Elections Office either.
A printing issue with the ballots sent to voters had gone undetected until they began returning to the elections office to be counted. Once the ballots showed the error, the ballots were duplicated and run through the scanning machine again.
Nearly 100 county employees from various departments were then reportedly trained to assist in rectifying the error.
“About 90 County staff from other departments are receiving training and assisting us so we can work through the rescanning process as quickly as possible,” said Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona. “It may take more time than usual, but I am confident that every legally cast ballot will be counted.”
Though the errors in the process did little to help strengthen the confidence in the local elections process, the department did not report any further issues and the vote was certified within the 30 day allotted time frame.
NID Changes (Fower, and new appointee)
The November election results surprised some when local rancher and business owner Brad Fowler was voted the new Director on the Board of Nevada Irrigation District, Division 3 over incumbent Karen Hull.
Incumbent Timothy May was reelected as District Board Member, Nevada County Board of Education, Trustee Area 2, leaving Alvin Gebhart with a loss.
Results for the local high school board of trustees were also contentious.
Kelly Clark was voted in as the Board Trustee for Area 3 in the Nevada Joint Union High School District (NJUHSD), beating incumbent Geoffrey Nelson.
Andrew Klein was voted in as the Board Trustee for Area 4 in the NJUHSD, beating his opponent Itara O’Connell.
Both Clark and Klein were unofficially endorsed by the Nevada County Republican Party in the nonpartisan race.
California Proposition 2 passed and will authorize $10 billion in bonds to build or repair K-12 schools and community colleges, especially for science, engineering, career technical, and vocational education classrooms.
Nevada County and the voters throughout the state of California approved Proposition 3, which enshrined the right to same-sex marriage into the California Constitution, repealing Proposition 8 — a measure approved by voters in 2008 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Bonds for water, wildfire, and land protection passed statewide with Proposition 4 in the November election also.
Voters in California rejected Proposition 5, which would have lowered the number of votes needed to approve bonds for affordable housing and public infrastructure projects from a two-thirds majority to 55 percent.
California voters also rejected Proposition 6, a ballot measure that would have banned forced labor in state prisons.
Voters narrowly rejected Proposition 32, which would have raised the minimum wage to $18 an hour in 2025 for employers of more than 25 people.
Proposition 33 failed with California and local voters; it would have allowed cities more freedom to limit how much landlords can raise rent, especially on single-family homes, apartments built since 1995, and units where there’s a new tenant.
Regulation on how certain health care entities can spend money earned from federal discount drug programs was approved with California Measure 34.
California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 35, a historic investment in Medi-Cal, which serves 15 million Californians.
Nevada County voters also approved the authorization of $25,000,000 in bonds for the Pleasant Ridge Union Elementary School District to replace leaky roofs, update heating and cooling systems, upgrade kitchens, and other safety features with Measure D.
