Seaside’s Mayor Ian Oglesby is poised to defeat his two challengers by a landslide.

Incumbent Ian Oglesby appears to have won the three-way race for mayor in Seaside after securing a commanding lead in the early results released by the Monterey County Elections Office.

As of 10am Nov. 4, the results show Oglesby receiving 4,710 votes, a 56-percent majority. He was trailed by Jon Wizard, a current councilmember, with 2,479 votes, or 30 percent. (Joseph Smith, a far-right Republican-endorsed candidate, who has promoted conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic propaganda, brought in 1,191 votes, or 14 percent.)

The vote count available so far comes almost entirely from mail-in ballots received ahead of Election Day.

The main fault line separating Oglesby and Wizard, who serve together on council, appeared this spring in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis and the ensuing nationwide debate on funding for law enforcement.

Wizard took to the streets with hundreds of peaceful demonstrators who demanded accountability and justice for communities of color over patterns of police abuse and the entrenched racial inequality of American life. Wizard was celebrated by some but vilified by others, who zeroed in on his use of the phrase “defund the police.”

Oglesby, meanwhile, positioned himself as a defender of the local police department while also expressing solidarity with the overall movement of Black Lives Matter and racial justice. He earned endorsements from influential church leaders and civil rights leaders in Seaside.

“When you look at the diversity of my support, that is the community of Seaside,” Oglesby says.

Critics of Wizard’s view on policing have mounted a recall attempt against him that will play out in coming weeks.

In the race for two open seats on city council, incumbent Dave Pacheco was in the lead among the five candidates running with 33 percent of the vote. With one seat too close to call, all eyes are on the vote count to determine who will occupy the seat being vacated by Alissa Kispersky.

With 2,290 votes in his favor on Wednesday morning, Alexis Garcia-Arrazola had a lead of only five votes over Regina Mason.

“What’s been going through my mind is 12 months of campaigning and talking to community members,” says Garcia-Arrazola. If elected, he would become the only Latino on city council and its youngest member.

“I have carried a lot of weight on my shoulders,” he says. “I am grateful for the democratic process.”