Election 2024

Election 2024

Election Day will be on Tuesday, November 5, 2025, and you can:

Starting the week of October 6, a mail ballot will be mailed to all registered voters in San Diego County and you can drop it off at any U.S. Postal Services or Registrar’s Official Ballot Drop Boxes from Tuesday October 8 through Election Day, Tuesday, November 5. Mailed ballot must be postmarked before or on Election Day to count.

To vote in-person, starting Monday, October 7, you can cast a ballot at San Diego Registrar of Voters‘ office at 5600 Overland Avenue, San Diego, CA 92123 from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Election Day, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Bring your sample and official mailed ballot with you! And if you’re still in line at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day, you’re still allowed to vote! Stay in line until it’s your turn to cast a ballot.

Or from Saturday, October 26 to Monday, November 4, you can cast a ballot at a vote center from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Election Day, from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

For the most up-to-date official information on elections, check:

For coverage of the election or voting guides, check:

And check our past write-ups: How To Vote: a Escondido Voting Guide, General Election 2022, Undoing of Escondido Campaign Finance Reforms, Presidential Primary Election 2020 and 2018 Preliminary Election Result Summary.

Escondido

Escondido Mayor and City Councilmembers are elected to serve four-years terms. In 2013, Escondido was drawn into four council districts as a result of a consent decree. So since then, the elections for Mayor, District 1 and District 2 are held during the Gubernatorial Midterms Elections (e.g. 2026, 2022, 2018, 2014) while District 3 and District 4 are held during the Presidential General Elections (e.g. 2024, 2020, 2016).

In 2022, Escondido was redistricted due to a new census, and the districts are different as illustrated in the maps below.

Escondido (2013 – 2022) Escondido (2023)
Escondido City District Map 2018 Escondido City District Map 2022

This year, Escondido will hold a municipal election for City Council District 3 and 4 and a measure ballot to add a one-cent local sales tax.

District 3

The current councilmember, Christian Garcia (Republican), was appointed to the position in January 2023 by the Republican-majority City Council after Councilmember Joe Garcia (Republican) was elected to District 2 in 2022 and the seat was vacated. (Due to redistricting, the then-District 3 Councilmember Joe Garcia was no longer qualified for District 3 in this year’s election and decided to run for District 2 in 2022 instead completing the rest of his term.)

Councilmember Garcia is officially running for District 3 against Christine Spencer (running as an Independent) and Veronica Cigarroa (Democrat). Candidate statements and information can be found at Escondido’s Elections website. Note that Christine Spencer had also applied for District 3 vacancy: her interview can be found in the the City Council Meeting Broadcast, and her application is available here: City Council D3 Application – Christine Spencer.

Councilmember Garcia approved to criminalize our unhoused community without offering sufficient housing solutions and community-based services to address homelessness in Escondido:

From his campaign finance filings up to June 30, 2024, Councilmember Garcia currently has $31,359.27 cash on hand and received more than $15,000 from businesses and political action committees, mainly involved in hospitality and real estates. He is on the Escondido Subcommittee for Housing as well as Budget, Downtown Parking and Utilities.

Name Amount
Western Manufactured Housing Association PAC $5,500
Infrastructure PAC of the Associated General Contractors $5,500
Escondido Hospitality Group LLC $2,000
Hospitality Lodging Group $1,001
California Taxpayers Coalition $750
Wells for Mayor 2022 $500
Total $15,251

He also received 18 individual donations totaling $13,000 from various executives and owners of hospitality or real estate businesses. Donations higher than $500 included:

Name Amount
R&V Management $7,050
Shiva Management $1,000
Sudberry Properties $1,000
Cal West Apartments $1,000
Quality Inn Escondido $500

And notably, he also received $250 from Sager Management, a company involved in an active development project, Daley Ranch Resort/Sager Ranch, in Escondido:

District 4

The current city councilmember, Mike Morasco (Republican), has been a councilmember since he was elected in 2012 for three 4-years terms (2012, 2016, 2020), but will be retiring from his office after the end of his current term this year. He is the father-in-law of Mayor Dane White (Republican).

Judy Fitzgerald (Republican) and Rod Howell (Democrat) are running for District 4. Candidate statements and information can be found at Escondido’s Elections website. Note that Judy Fitzgerald is a former board member of the Planning Commission from May 24, 2023 to March 31, 2024: her interview can be found in the City Council Meeting Broadcast, and her application then is available here.

From her campaign finance filings up to June 30, 2024, Judy Fitzgerald currently has $43,207.22 cash on hand and received more than $4,000 from businesses and political action committees:

Name Amount
Infrastructure PAC of the Associated General Contractors $2,500
Nathu Investment Group $1,001
California Taxpayers Coalition $750
Total $4,251

She also received six individual donations that were greater than $1,000 and totaled $18,000. Of which four are from various business executives and owners:

Name Amount
Adamo Security Group $5,500
All American Plastic & Packaging $4,500
Henson’s Fix Auto $1,100
Shiva Management $1,000

Of Councilmember Morasco: during his tenure, he approved to close Escondido East Valley Public Branch Library in 2011 and to outsource public library operations of Escondido Public Library to an out-of-state company, Library Systems and Services, in 2017. He also approved to undo Escondido campaign finance reforms to benefit his and his party campaigns in 2021, including his son-in-law in his then campaign for Mayor.

And he approved to criminalize our unhoused community without offering sufficient housing solutions and community-based services to address homelessness in Escondido.

Measure I

Measure I proposes to raise the sales tax by one cent for the next 20 years. The proposed measure can be found on Escondido’s Measure I website.

Escondido has been facing budget deficits for the past several years (where our projected revenue is not meeting our budgeted expenses) and is projected to continue facing around $10 millions deficits for the next 5 years and to increase to $23 millions by 2036. See Escondido’s Budget Deficit Has Taken a Toll on the City That May Take Years to Correct.

To address the recent deficits, the city had explored increasing the sales tax rate: in 2022, the city ballot measure for a 3/4 cent increase failed by only 447 votes (1.2%).

Escondido has a 7.75% sales tax rate where for each $7.75 collected, $6 goes to the State, $0.50 goes to Transnet, $0.25 goes to the County and $1 goes to Escondido. If Measure I is successfully approved by voters, then our sales tax rate would be raised to 8.75% with $2 going to the City for every $8.75 collected.

BudgetCommunityMeetingSpring2023-SalesTaxRateDownload

Sales tax revenue contributed around 39% of the city general fund revenue. From the total general fund, around 41% goes to the Police Department, 24% Fire, 10% Public Works, 8% Community Services, 6% Community Development and 10% all other expenses.

Measure I initially started as a citizen’s initiative to raise the sales tax by one cent for the next 20 years before being adopted as a measure by the city. The political action committee, Escondido Citizens for Safety, behind the citizen’s initiative reported receiving $165,000 donations from various city employees and contractors as of June 30, 2024:

Name Amount
Escondido Police Association PAC $75,000
Escondido Firefighters Assoc EFLAG PAC $75,000
Library Systems & Services Inc $10,000
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council PAC $5,000
Comments are closed.