By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

The polls closed Tuesday night and the preliminary results for Glendale’s 2017 municipal election are in.

With 100% of precincts reporting and with the first batch of absentee votes counted, Glendale City Council incumbents Ara J. Najarian and Zareh Sinanyan held onto their seats. Coming in third was talk show host Vrej Agajanian. Their share of the votes so far amounted 8,305, 7,892 and 7,885 respectively. Challengers Mark McCarley and Rick Dinger placed fourth and fifth.

According to the city’s Election Center, approximately 3,900 provisional and absentee ballots remain to be counted as of Wednesday. The city allows up to three days after the election for mail-in ballots to arrive. The City Clerk’s Office said Tuesday night that the counting of those ballots will take place on Friday, April 21.

Given the number of ballots and the number of candidates, the figures could change on April 21. The spread of votes separating Sinanyan and Agajanian is only seven.

Measure L was a big winner Tuesday night, with 13,671 votes in favor over 2,400 against. The measure would limit City Council members to three consecutive terms, making for a total of 12 years.

City Clerk Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian said that elections were running smoothly, though he was concerned that turnout would be lower than usual.

“[Glendale] has had three elections in the past year,” he said. “There may be some burn-out among voters and this may depress our numbers.”

Kassakhian also said that the county election held last month may have confused some voters in this week’s municipal election. Many residents complained that their polling places had moved since March.

“We usually vote by mail,” said resident Rita Koechowski at the polling place inside of the Glendale Police Dept. Headquarters. “But [my father and I] never received [our ballots] for some reason. I made a phone call and found out I could vote here. So I drove down quickly before they closed.”

She added that her father, who recently turned 100, was too frail to make the trip.

Another voter, who declined to state her name, complained that the city did a poor job of informing voters of any changes in polling place locations.

“This was not well organized,” she said while her husband stood behind and nodded in approval. “I’m very familiar with how this ought to work. We were very confused when we saw our usual polling place closed.”

She also said she had spoken to city staff concerning a woman who had walked into the polling place and encouraged people to vote for Agajanian.

“She was loudly talking in Armenian to vote for him,” she said. “It was unreal.”

Inquiry seeking comment from the Agajanian camp was unreturned.

  Mary Okeefe, Nestor CASTIGLIONE