Greg Hill was officially named the new mayor of Redondo Beach and newcomer Kevin Sullivan formally took his seat on the City Council when final election results were announced Tuesday. Voting percentages in each race changed only a fraction of a percent from results announced election night.
The final vote count came after the city clerk’s office spent a week counting additional absentee ballots, many of which rolled in the day of the May 13 runoff election. City officials encouraged residents to vote by absentee ballot and cut in half the number of precincts in the hope of bringing out more voters.
City Clerk John Oliver said that runoff elections in the city typically have a voter turnout of 8% to 11%. He said the campaign to get residents to vote by mail with the paid postage ballots boosted that number to 16%. Still, only 5,888 of the 36,126 registered voters cast a vote in the election.
Hill was one of two candidates seeking the mayoral seat vacated by Brad Parton, who could not run again because of term limits but made a bid for a council seat. Hill captured 53.5% of the vote while Councilwoman Marilyn White took 46.1%. In the race for City Council, Sullivan was elected with 57.8% compared to Parton’s 41.8%.