By Samantha Bartholomew
In the hairpin close race for the Riverside Community College District, Jose Alcala maintains his lead after Nov. 27’s update by the Riverside County Registrar’s Office.
Alcala picked up 897 votes on opponent Brian Hawley and now leads with 22,906 with Hawley close behind at 22,274 votes.
Brian Hawley, a local business owner, attended community college and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UC Riverside. Hawley is the founder of Luminex software, a 22-year-old Riverside based technology company that provides data storage products to a broad range of industries.
Alcala, a member of the Moreno Valley Educators Association, is the Board member for the California Teachers Association that serves Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Alcala has taught history for 14 years at March Mountain High School, an alternative education site in the Moreno Valley Unified School District and has previously taught at two other schools in the district
The race to fill the Area 4 Board of Trustees seat has been filled with controversy between the RCCD’s Faculty Association and Hawley over the association’s belief that Hawley misled the voters by claiming that he was an educator.
As of Nov. 28, the Riverside County’s Registrar Office still has to process approximately 10,000 vote-by-mail and 45,000 provisional ballots.
The next update is scheduled for Nov. 30 at 5 p.m.