UPDATED NOVEMBER 5, 2026 — INYO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. NEW COUNT: Steven Orihuela 416 votes (50.73%); Scott E. Marcellin 404 votes (49.27%). The Inyo County District 3 supervisor race has flipped since this report was first published. This is the county’s fourth election-night snapshot, timed 12:13 a.m. Wednesday, November 4, not a certified final result.

How the lead changed

In the first 8 p.m. return on November 3, Marcellin held 285 votes against Orihuela’s 257 — a 28-vote lead from early mail ballots. Later election-night batches added in-person ballots. The fourth published summary, reproduced by Eastern Sierra outlet Sierra Wave, records Orihuela on 416 and Marcellin on 404 — a 12-vote Orihuela lead. At these two reporting times, the lead shifted by 40 votes. It is not accurate to continue presenting the earlier headline as the current ordering.

Why 12 votes cannot be called a final outcome

The Inyo County Elections Office separately lists 3,192 mailed ballots received from October 30 through Election Day still being processed, plus 120 provisional or conditional ballots and 26 challenged ballots. Not all these voters necessarily reside in District 3 or voted in this contest; countywide outstanding-ballot counts cannot be treated as the number of votes remaining in one supervisorial race. But the figures demonstrate why a 12-vote margin is particularly premature to treat as decisive.

What District 3 is voting for

County supervisors make decisions about local government spending, unincorporated services, land-use and public safety. A district-level result must be read from the district race, rather than from turnout for the whole county or for a different election. A candidate leading is not the same as a winner being certified.

Next official update

The county expects its next ballot-count report on Friday, November 6. Valid mail ballots postmarked by November 3 may continue to arrive by November 10. Separate signature corrections and provisional-ballot review continue into the canvass period. County officials must complete official results by December 3; the state certifies on December 11.

Follow our related reporting

Read the new Inyo County outstanding-ballot update and the county election guide. The original November 3 first count is preserved above as historical context, clearly separated from the current fourth count.

Sources: Inyo County official election-report index and outstanding-ballot status; Inyo fourth unofficial report, published by Sierra Wave; California Secretary of State. This article is an unofficial result, updated November 5.

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  1. Pingback: Inyo County Still Has at Least 3,338 Ballots in Processing After Election Night; Next Update Expected November 6 – California58