WALNUT CREEK, CA: The ballots landed in mailboxes the first week of October. The campaign signs along Ygnacio Valley Road have already started to sprout like weeds.
This is a local ballot first. Two City Council candidates, one race for the treasurer’s desk, and two city measures.
It also carries a regional transit measure and a school parcel tax, plus the usual wall of state races and propositions.
The City Clerk certified the November 3 General Municipal Election back in August. Since then the field, the ballot designations, and the fine print have been locked.
What is actually on the Walnut Creek ballot
Locally, Walnut Creek voters are deciding a City Council race, a single question about how the city treasurer is chosen, and two city measures. Here is the whole local slate, at a glance.
| Item | What it decides |
|---|---|
| City Council | Two candidates: Cherise Marie Khaund, a community organizer and parent, and Brendan Moran, a small business owner |
| City Treasurer | Ronald Cassano, the incumbent, is the only candidate on the ballot |
| Measure T | Should the office of City Treasurer be appointive instead of elected? YES or NO |
| Measure U | Senior housing on a 2.4-acre site at North California Boulevard and Ygnacio Valley Road |
The city posts candidate statements, contact numbers, and the dates each candidate qualified on its election page. Worth a look if you want to read past the three-word ballot designations.
Two council candidates is a short field. It also means the names are easy to learn before you fill in the bubble.
The treasurer question, Measure T
Measure T is the shortest item on the ballot and, quietly, the most structural.
Shall the office of City Treasurer be appointive?
In plain terms, keep electing a treasurer, or let the city appoint one like most other department heads. The measure reached the ballot by council resolution, and the City Attorney wrote an impartial analysis of what it would change.
The city published both the argument in favor and the argument against, plus a rebuttal to each. If you want the real case on both sides, that is where to find it.
There is a small irony worth noticing. Voters are being asked whether the treasurer should be an appointed job at the same time they get to elect one. Cassano, the incumbent, is running for a post that could stop being an elected office the moment the votes are counted.
That is not an argument for or against. It is just a strange ballot.
Measure U and the senior housing fight
Measure U is the item with the most weight behind it, and the one most likely to fill the council chamber on a Tuesday night.
The initiative would redesignate a 2.4-acre site as mixed use residential. The parcel sits at the northeast corner of North California Boulevard and Ygnacio Valley Road, zoned for offices today.
It would also create a new zoning district that limits the site to multifamily senior housing for people 55 and older. Commercial uses that fit alongside the housing would be allowed too.
Because it is an initiative, voters are making a land use call that would normally run through the planning process first.
We walked through the proposal, the site, and the debate in September. The short version: it is the city’s most significant housing vote in years. It also sits a short walk from the Walnut Creek BART station.
For the longer read before you vote, start with our earlier piece on the Measure U senior housing plan.
The deadlines that matter
A handful of dates decide whether your ballot actually counts. Most of them fall before Election Day.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Oct. 5 | The county mails vote-by-mail ballots to every registered voter |
| Oct. 19 | Last day to register to vote |
| Oct. 30 – Nov. 2 | Regional early voting opens at Shadelands Art Center (Friday, Saturday, and Monday before Election Day) |
| Nov. 3 | Election Day. Ballots are due by 8 p.m. |
| Nov. 10 | Deadline to remove campaign signs |
| Dec. 1 | New council members are sworn in |
Miss the October 19 registration deadline and you are not out of luck. You can still vote conditionally at the county elections office, a regional early voting site, or any polling place.
The city also caps campaign contributions at $240 per person or entity this cycle. A small detail, but one that shapes how loud the mailers get.
Where to vote and drop your ballot
Every registered voter gets a ballot in the mail. Mail it back, postmarked on or before Election Day and received within 17 days. Or skip the stamp and use a drop box.
| Location | Address |
|---|---|
| City Hall (two boxes: off the Broadway Parking Lot, and on the North Main Street side) | Downtown Walnut Creek |
| Shadelands Art Center | 111 N. Wiget Lane |
| Grace Presbyterian Church | 2100 Tice Valley Blvd |
The boxes are open around the clock and need no postage. That is the fast lane.
The regional early voting site at Shadelands opens the Friday, Saturday, and Monday before Election Day. One catch: there is no in-person voting at that site. It is a place to drop a ballot and ask a question, not to fill one out on the spot.
Prefer to vote the old way? A full list of polling places for November 3 is on the Contra Costa County elections page. You can also confirm your registration and sample ballot there.
Further down the same sheet, the ballot carries more. There is a regional transit tax that touches BART and bus service. There is a school parcel tax, plus a long list of state races and propositions.
Those are bigger than one city. They still get the same pen.
Patch put together its own Walnut Creek voter guide if you want a second look at the full ballot. The separate 2050 General Plan update is worth a look too, if you want a say in the city’s next 25 years. Its online workshop closes October 25.
Walnut Creek likes to call itself a small town with big-city amenities. An off-year election is where the small town part actually shows up.
Two measures, one treasurer, two council names. It will not trend nationally. It will decide what gets built next to BART.
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