Two Votes Separate Tracy-Area Jefferson School Trustees: Wetherell 254, Fleckner 252

TRACY AREA, San Joaquin County — November 5, 2026. In a year when statewide races receive most of the attention, one of the smallest reported local election margins in San Joaquin County involves a school governing board. The official county early count for Jefferson Elementary School District Board Member Trustee Area 4 shows Todd Wetherell with 254 votes (50.20%) against Larkin Fleckner with 252 (49.80%), a difference of two votes. A two-vote election-night lead should never be described as a certified win.

Only 506 candidate votes in the reported snapshot

The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters records 506 valid candidate selections in this one-seat trustee-area contest. The 50.20% and 49.80% values use the votes counted for this question. They are not a measure of turnout throughout Tracy, nor an estimate of how residents voted for the mayor. The electorate consists of voters legally assigned to Trustee Area 4 of this particular elementary school district.

The exact difference matters because certification is not finished

Two votes could be overtaken if additional valid eligible ballots from the trustee area are counted. However, an election-night countywide backlog cannot be substituted for the number of outstanding Area 4 votes. Without the district-specific distribution of unprocessed ballots, an assertion that one candidate will ultimately win would be unsupported. The county still has to complete the full canvass and the mandatory manual audit.

Tracy Unified has separate trustees and different boundaries

In the Tracy Unified School District Trustee Area 6 election, the county reports R. G. Fagin 1,048 votes (51.57%) versus Devaughn Jones 984 (48.43%), a 64-vote difference. This is a distinct school district and area from Jefferson Elementary’s two-vote contest.

Other Tracy Unified trustee areas

For Tracy Unified Trustee Area 4, the reported totals are Alicia R. Corrales 943 and Olinga Yarber-Alexander 531, a 412-vote gap. In Trustee Area 7, the county lists Barbara “Bobbie” Etcheverry 1,356 versus Vijay Pasapula 1,184, a 172-vote difference. Readers should avoid treating these separate geographic trustee-area races as one all-city school-board election.

Why governing-board races deserve equal attention

School trustees help oversee district budgets, policies, facilities and the superintendent’s work. Parents may have a direct interest in school facilities, classroom resources and district accountability even when the electorate for a school board is much smaller than for a citywide mayor. Crucially, local school districts often have different boundaries from municipal city limits; school governance should not be attributed to the wrong district.

The city also voted for mayor and council

In the separate citywide mayoral election, Dan Arriola led Mateo Bedolla in the early results, and a City Council District 1 election was separated by just 49 votes. School results cannot be extrapolated to either municipal contest, but links help Tracy-area readers explore the full set of offices on different residential ballots.

Audit and next official results

County officials are conducting a legal post-election canvass and plan a one-percent manual audit beginning the week of November 9. The county anticipates completing that audit by November 25 and releasing certified results according to state deadlines. Every figure above is a preliminary election-night snapshot, checked November 5, not a final count. See the Registrar of Voters for later updates.

Primary source: San Joaquin County November 3 general-election results, Jefferson Elementary and Tracy Unified trustee contests; viewed November 5, 2026.

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