Filing is closed. Four of the nine local seats will not be on your ballot.

County filing closed at 5 p.m. Wednesday, August 12, at the end of the five-day extension. The field is now set in substance, though the Registrar does not certify it until August 27.

On August 4 we counted nine local seats on this year's ballot. Four of them are no longer on it.

Both Los Alamitos Unified trustee seats and both seats on the Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Area Sewer District have dropped out of the Registrar's list of contests on the ballot. Each drew no more candidates than there were openings.¹

A seat comes off the ballot by arithmetic

California treats an uncontested district race as already decided. Under Elections Code section 10515, when the number of people who filed does not exceed the number of offices to be filled, and no voter petition demanding an election has been presented, the elections official certifies those facts and the supervising authority appoints whoever filed. The statute leaves no discretion on the last step: "The supervising authority shall make these appointments."²

Spotlight Schools reported the Area 3 outcome on August 8. The seat "will not be on the upcoming ballot," it wrote, because board president Diana Hill was the only candidate to qualify, and Hill "will remain a board member," a title she has held since 2010. Of Area 1 it wrote that if no one challenged Anne Mulhearn, "she will automatically be installed into the seat."³

Nobody challenged her. Area 1 was one of 26 contests the Registrar extended on August 8 because an eligible incumbent had not filed, in this case Marlys Davidson.⁴ The extension closed August 12, and Area 1 does not appear in the schools section of the candidate log printed at 9:17 the next morning.¹

That log is a filtered document, which is why a contest can vanish from it rather than appear with a note. Every page carries the line "Contests On Ballot." So the sewer district, which we reported on August 7 as settled with both incumbents qualified, is simply absent now. David A. Boyer and John L. Stea filed for two seats, and two does not exceed two.¹

Los Alamitos City Council races run on a different track. The city files through its own clerk under Elections Code section 10229, which lets a council appoint an unopposed nominee, but that section does not apply when a city measure has qualified for the same election. Los Alamitos has one this year.⁵

Rossmoor is the exception, and the extension there changed nothing

The Registrar's log shows contest 6021, the only local district race voters will actually decide, with two seats, four candidates and three qualified, still carrying the extension flag and still marked ON BALLOT.¹ Jo Shade, ballot designation "Incumbent," qualified August 4. Jody L. Roubanis, "Professor," qualified August 5. Konya Vivanti, "Environmental Programs Manager," qualified August 7.

Every one of the three qualified on or before August 7. Nobody entered during the extension. The window stayed open five extra days because Michael Maynard, an eligible incumbent, filed nothing, and it closed without adding a name. The Registrar's notice was blunt about what that costs him: incumbents who did not file "are no longer eligible to be placed on the ballot."⁴ Maynard won this seat in 2022 as the top vote-getter, with 2,058 votes.⁶

Vivanti is not a new name here. She ran in 2024 and finished fourth of four with 2,029 votes, behind Nathan Searles, Tony DeMarco and Mary Ann Remnet.⁷

The Event News Enterprise reported on August 13 that Maynard "bowed out." That is the reporter's characterization. We have found no statement from Maynard himself, and none from Davidson.⁸

Two candidates are running for one seat and applying for another

Eight residents asked to be appointed to the seat Remnet left, and the district named them in its August 11 agenda packet: Matt Anderson, Eric Bredenberg, Jody L. Roubanis, Brad Simon, Loree Swanenburg, Konya Vivanti, Scott Yabroff and Andrew Zinser. The Registrar confirmed all eight are registered voters living inside district boundaries.⁹

Two of those names are also on the November ballot. Roubanis and Vivanti are seeking the elected seats and the appointed one at the same time. The appointed term runs to December 2028. The elected terms start December 4.

Roubanis teaches part time at Point Loma Nazarene University, which matches her "Professor" designation,¹⁰ and is second vice president of the Rossmoor Homeowners Association.¹¹ In the resume she filed with the district she lists a 2020 run for the Los Alamitos Unified board in Trustee Area 2, and describes herself as the primary author of the homeowners association resolution on e-bike use in Rossmoor. The district's July 14 minutes record her addressing the board about that resolution.⁹

Of Mulhearn, who stands to take a school board seat without facing voters, the public record says almost nothing. Two outlets describe her as a community volunteer and district parent.³⁸ We could not find a committee roster, minutes entry or news account that adds anything to that.

The budget vote nobody has reported

The August 11 meeting also carried a vote on Resolution No. 26-08-11-01, which would set the year's revenue and expenditure totals. The proposed figures are $2,471,500 in revenue against $2,314,030 in spending, leaving $157,470. The hearing that preceded it was the third the district has held on this budget.⁹

Government Code section 61110 requires adoption by September 1, and the district has been running on a preliminary budget since the fiscal year opened July 1. Its own staff report is candid about what the deadline means. Once it passes, the board "loses the express legal authority to authorize new expenditures, pay vendors, or process payroll," and the county auditor "can freeze or delay the distribution of the District's share of local property tax revenues."⁹

We cannot tell you what the board decided on either item. No minutes are posted, the district's meetings page lists only an agenda for August 11, and the next regular meeting is September 8.¹² No outlet has reported the result. As of Friday the district's own board page still listed Remnet as a sitting director, more than a month after her resignation took effect.¹³

The city's two council races are contested, and the city has not said so

Both Los Alamitos council seats drew a challenger, according to the Event News Enterprise: Shelley Hasselbrink faces Joe Hastie in District 4, and Emily Hibard faces John Delavigne in District 5.⁸ Hasselbrink's decision to run also settles the term limit question we raised on August 4. Measure X counts only terms beginning with the November 2024 election, so her earlier service never barred her.

The city has published none of this. Its election page still gives the nomination window and the $25 fee and nothing else.¹⁴ Its filing log page is headed "November 6, 2018 General Municipal Election," and lists issue dates, filing dates, qualification dates and candidate statements for that race.¹⁵ The city built exactly the tool a voter would want and stopped maintaining it eight years ago.

The Event News Enterprise's own caveat matters here. Its list reflects filings through August 11, one day before the extension closed, and it does not say whether the two challengers have qualified as opposed to filed. Council candidates do not appear in the county log, so there is no second document to check them against.

What a visitor would pay

Measure G is the only local measure on this ballot.¹⁶ The City Council voted June 15 to ask voters to raise the transient occupancy tax from 8 percent to 12 percent, which the city estimates would bring in about $150,000 in the first partial year and $300,000 annually after that, against a general fund with projected revenue of $30,817,761 for 2026-27.¹⁷

The city puts the cost at about $26 on an average $218 nightly stay, and notes that Long Beach charges 13 percent and Seal Beach 12 percent.¹⁷ Our August 4 story said no local measure affected these voters. That was accurate about the bond notices the Registrar had posted and wrong about the ballot, because a city measure travels through the city rather than the county. Measure G was already headed to voters when we wrote it.

Between now and November

The Secretary of State drew the randomized alphabet on August 13. Names will appear in the order H, X, K, W, C, P, J, O, Z, A, L, D, N, S, Q, B, I, R, Y, G, V, E, F, M, T, U.¹⁸ In Rossmoor that puts Shade first, then Roubanis, then Vivanti, which is the order the Registrar's log already prints them in.

The certified candidate list is published August 27. Ballots go to every active registered voter October 5. Registration closes October 19, after which conditional same-day registration applies. Vote centers open October 24, and any center in the county will serve you. Election Day is November 3, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.¹⁹

You can check your registration and see your own ballot at ocvote.gov/vlt, register or update at registertovote.ca.gov, and track a mail ballot at california.ballottrax.net.

Sources

1. Orange County Registrar of Voters, "Contest/Candidate Proof List," General Election 11/3/2026, contests 6021 and 3034; school and college section printed 8/14/2026 at 9:17:56 a.m., special district section printed 8/13/2026 at 3:46:12 p.m. ↩
2. California Elections Code section 10515, appointment in lieu of election where candidates do not exceed offices. ↩
3. Spotlight Schools, Jeannette Andruss, "Candidate Filing Deadline Extended for 12 School Board Contests," August 8, 2026. ↩
4. Orange County Registrar of Voters, "Candidate Filing Period Extended Through August 12 for Select Offices," August 8, 2026. ↩
5. California Elections Code section 10229, including subdivision (b), which disapplies the section where a city measure has qualified. ↩
6. Orange County Registrar of Voters, certified statement of vote, November 8, 2022, Rossmoor Community Services District Director, pp. 1862-1864. ↩
7. Orange County Registrar of Voters, certified statement of vote, November 5, 2024, pp. 1249-1252. ↩
8. The Event News Enterprise, David N. Young, "Ballot fills before Nov. 3 elections," August 13, 2026. ↩
9. Rossmoor Community Services District, board agenda packet, August 11, 2026, items F-1 and G-1, and Resolution No. 26-08-11-01, Attachment A. ↩
10. Point Loma Nazarene University, faculty page for Jody Roubanis, Ed.D., CFCS, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
11. Rossmoor Homeowners Association, 2024-2025 RHA board of directors, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
12. Rossmoor Community Services District, agendas and minutes, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
13. Rossmoor Community Services District, board of directors, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
14. City of Los Alamitos, November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
15. City of Los Alamitos, filing logs, retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
16. Orange County Registrar of Voters, assigned measure letters, November 3, 2026. ↩
17. City of Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos Hotel Tax (TOT Measure), retrieved August 15, 2026. ↩
18. California Secretary of State, "Announces Results of Randomized Alphabet Drawing for the November 3, 2026, General Election," release PR26-109, August 13, 2026. ↩
19. California Secretary of State, key dates and deadlines, General Election November 3, 2026. ↩