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The Livermore City Council last week agreed to cancel two uncontested elections following a clash with a local community leader regarding voter participation.
In lieu of the election, the council appointed Mayor John Marchand to serve at the helm for another two-year term and Councilmember Evan Branning to represent District 1 of northwest Livermore for a second four-year term.
Estimated to save the city at least $250,000, the decision was permitted under the California Elections Code because there was only one candidate qualified in each race, according to Livermore city clerk Olivia Nashed.
The election for District 2 of northeast Livermore, featuring incumbent Ben Barrientos and longtime physician Narayan Tadimeti, remains on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election.
Despite the council’s 4-0 consensus at the Aug. 20 special meeting, tension bubbled over between the mayor and Livermore Valley Arts board director Jean King who warned the council against what she saw as stripping residents of the right to vote.
“Everyone has a right not to vote, but the right to vote should not be taken away … The voters of Livermore want to cast their own votes,” King said as the sole speaker during public comment.
“Wow,” Marchand replied. “We are not taking the right to vote away from anyone.”
As the unchallenged incumbent who is expected to win, placing the mayoral race on the ballot with his name solely would be a meaningless gesture, he reasoned.
“It’s a far better reason to wisely use the public funds and not have an election that’s just an exercise in egotism,” Marchand added.
Prior to the council’s vote, city staff recommended the appointment of Marchand and Branning for the sake of “significant” cost savings, efficiency and reduced staff time within the city and Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office.
Without the election, there is no process for potential write-in candidates to compete, Nashed explained.
Vice Mayor Kristie Wang extended her support for directly appointing Marchand and Branning. They were previoulsy elected by voters and no one challenged them this time around, she explained.
“There’s no way for the outcome to be any different than us appointing them today, in which case I think we should save the $250,000,” Wang said.
The cost of the uncontested election would be better spent elsewhere, the council concluded.
Following the comments by the council, Marchand took aim at King and Livermore Independent publisher Joan Seppala.
“I am shocked at the cynicism here,” Marchand said.
“What’s cynical about it is the people that wanted to control the city wanted to have a lower voter turnout. They didn’t want people to vote because they could better manipulate the vote,” Marchand said, referring to when the city used to hold elections in odd-numbered years. “On the other hand, I wanted more people to vote because I wanted to hear from more people and that’s what we’ve successfully done.”
Upon switching to even-year municipal elections, voter turnout increased by 30%, according to Marchand.
As for the upcoming terms, Marchand and Branning are slated to take office and serve as if they had been elected in the Nov. 3 general election.
Branning was absent from the special meeting last week.
Livermore council nixes elections for unchallenged incumbents after fiery debateAugust 25, 2026 9:52 pm
This is BS. Mayor has already overstayed , just because he took a term break doesn’t automatically mean he can be mayor forever. Heck I’ll throw my hat in the ring!! Damn missed the due date 🙂