Diane Dixon Supervisor pulls ahead of Katrina Foley with nearly 200,000 ballots still left to count in Orange County District 5.
Republican state Assemblywoman Diane Dixon took a narrow lead late Tuesday evening in the race for a local supervisor seat. With nearly 200,000 ballots remain to be counted, the D county’s voter registrar only counted ten ballots during their latest update.
Dixon and incumbent Supervisor Katrina Foley have been locked in a tight race for Orange County’s District 5 supervisor seat. However, since January, Foley has faced significant backlash during her time in office over issues including mass herbicide spraying in county waterways, a growing landfill controversy and sharp increases in harbor slip rates in Dana Point.
With votes rolling in after polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Orange County Registrar of Voters began making progress counting in-person ballots throughout the night. Foley held a slim lead early on, but Dixon pulled ahead to 48.96% with Foley at 45.08%.
Just before midnight, a final update for the evening was expected. Instead, the update was delayed by an hour, and the ballot numbers showed no meaningful change at the time.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page told the California Courier on Wednesday morning that the unofficial results report posted at 12:35 a.m. contained just 10 more ballots than the report posted at 11:30 p.m.
“Last night after we posted at 11:30 p.m., we automatically reset the countdown clock for a next posting at Midnight. But, I decided to reset the countdown clock for 12:45 a.m. rather than post a new results report at Midnight with no ballots added, knowing that the ballots from the final Vote Center would not arrive in time for a Midnight posting,” Page said.
“State law requires that we post no less than every two hours on Election Night, with which we complied,” Page added.
Page noted that it is possible for an unofficial results report to show no added ballots compared to the prior posting if officials decide to “post at a promised time even though additional Vote Center ballots have not been received at our Santa Ana office in time to add to the count.”
At the time of the 12:35 a.m. unofficial results, the registrar estimated more than 197,000 ballots still needed processing.
Those remaining, according to the county’s site, include vote-by-mail ballots received on or before Election Day, ballots from drop boxes, vote-by-mail ballots returned at voting centers, duplicate ballots, conditional voter registrations, provisional ballots, and remote accessible vote-by-mail ballots.
In June 2025, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters for refusing to provide records related to the removal of non-citizens from the voter rolls and for failing to maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act.
At the time of the DOJ’s announcement, Foley issued a statement arguing that voting in the county is “safe and secure.”
“Our Registrar of Voters office moved swiftly to cancel the registration of all other ineligible voters. Our system is working,” Foley wrote.
By August 2025, Foley joined her Democratic colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, voting against directing Page to fully comply with the DOJ’s request for unredacted records.
The next update on the District 5 results is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to the county’s website.
