Korean American candidates lead OC races as ballot counting continues

Two Korean American candidates held substantial school board leads and two others ran unopposed in Orange County’s Tuesday elections, according to Korea Daily. Several city council contests remained unsettled in unofficial returns reported Wednesday.

The results could shape Korean American representation on local councils and school boards, but narrow margins leave several outcomes dependent on remaining ballots. Korea Daily cited the Orange County Registrar of Voters as reporting 246,570 uncounted ballots countywide.

Korea Daily identified Jeff Kim, Amy Choi-Won, Jason Jung and Joyce Ahn as winners. Although the report described those victories as confirmed, its figures were unofficial and counting remained underway. Jung ran unopposed for a third term in Buena Park School District’s District 2, while Ahn faced no opponent for re-election to Buena Park City Council’s District 1.

In Irvine Unified School District’s District 4, incumbent Kim had 4,920 votes, or 59%, against Jane Wood’s 3,414 votes, or 41%, according to the report. Choi-Won led Jordan Abushawish in Fullerton School District’s District 3 with 3,886 votes, or 65%, to 2,106 votes, or 35%.

The school board results also showed Jack Chang trailing incumbent Steven Glass in Orange Unified School District’s District 7. Chang had 20,606 votes, or 44.9%, compared with Glass’ 25,520 votes, or 55.1%, Korea Daily reported.

In Irvine City Council’s District 1, John Park moved from a 198-vote deficit to a 120-vote lead over incumbent Melinda Liu, with Sukhee Kang third. Andrew Kim held a 49-vote advantage over La Palma Mayor Nitesh Patel in that city’s District 2 council race, according to the report.

In Cypress City Council’s District 2, Helen Reh trailed Councilmember Bonnie Peat by 15 votes, with 824 votes to Peat’s 839. Korea Daily reported that Reh would become the city’s first Korean American council member if she won. In Buena Park’s District 2 council contest, Yongduk Choi had 43.1% against incumbent Carlos Franco’s 56.9%.

The registrar expected the uncounted-ballot total to rise as eligible mail ballots postmarked by Election Day arrived, according to Korea Daily. The reported margins remained a snapshot of an unfinished count, not final results.