Pasadena’s Measure PFD, the fire and paramedic parcel tax, is still sitting just below the line it has to cross. In the Los Angeles County Registrar’s latest tally — results as of Friday, November 6, at 4:37 p.m. — the measure has 65.96% voting yes. Because PFD is a special tax, it needs two-thirds of the vote, 66.67%, to pass.
The count right now
- Yes: 32,162 votes (65.96%)
- No: 16,595 votes (34.04%)
- Total counted in this contest so far: 48,757 votes
- Needed to pass: two-thirds of votes cast
Put in raw votes, the gap is small and getting smaller. On the ballots counted so far, a two-thirds yes vote would be 32,505 votes — the Yes side is 343 votes short of that mark. Since the Registrar’s 9:24 a.m. tally, another 2,310 ballots have been counted in this contest, and the Yes share has ticked up from 65.76% to 65.96%, narrowing the shortfall from 423 votes to 343. That is close enough that the ballots still being counted could move the result in either direction, and it is why neither side can call this finished yet.
What happens next
This tally is not final. The Registrar is still counting — including mail ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and arrive within seven days — and the county posts updated results as counting continues. Certification is scheduled for November 27. The county results page does not state how many ballots remain to be counted in this contest, so there is no official count of exactly how many Pasadena ballots are still outstanding.
If the yes share holds below two-thirds once every ballot is counted, the measure fails, and the council will have to find another way to pay for the fire-station work and staffing PFD was written to fund. If late-counted ballots push it over 66.67%, the tax takes effect and the city gains a dedicated fire and emergency-services revenue stream for the next 14 years. Either way, the answer turns on a few hundred votes — watch this space as the next tallies post.
Our earlier post on this measure, with the background on what PFD would do and who backed and opposed it, is here: Measure PFD Is Just Short: Fire Tax at 65.96%, Below the Two-Thirds It Needs
The outlook
Passage is still possible, but the arithmetic is against it unless the remaining ballots break much more strongly for Yes than the ones counted Thursday. The gap is 423 votes, and the target moves: every new ballot counted raises the two-thirds bar by two-thirds of a vote, so Yes gains ground only on the share of new ballots above 66.67%.
In both of Thursday’s updates, the newly counted ballots broke 67–68% yes, and the gap narrowed by only 17 votes in the morning update and 35 in the afternoon. At that pace, the ballots still to be counted — mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and arriving within seven days, plus provisional and other remaining ballots — would close only part of the gap. To pass, the late ballots would need to break roughly 70% yes if about 13,000 remain, 75% yes if about 5,000 remain, or 80% yes if about 3,300 remain. The Registrar does not publish how many Pasadena ballots are left, so those figures are scenarios, not a count.
Bottom line: the most likely outcome is that Measure PFD finishes just short, unless a coming batch breaks above roughly 72% yes — which would change the picture quickly.
What officials are saying
So far, not much. As of Friday afternoon, neither the Pasadena Fire Department nor Fire Chief Chad Augustin has commented publicly on the results, and the department’s Measure PFD webpage still carries its pre-election wording. City Clerk Mark Jomsky’s office has likewise said nothing about the count — the Clerk’s formal role comes at the end of the process, when the City Council accepts the Registrar’s certified canvass. The only word from the measure’s side came from the Yes campaign: a November 5 post on Mayor Victor Gordo’s Instagram account thanked Pasadena voters and called the measure “too close to call,” noting thousands of ballots still outstanding and promising further updates.
After that Friday-afternoon check, the first councilmember weighed in. In his District 1 newsletter Friday evening, Councilmember Tyron Hampton wrote that “it appears the measure will fall short” of the two-thirds vote required for passage, and argued the result cannot end the conversation: upgrading Fire Stations 33 and 37 must remain a priority, for earthquake resilience and firefighter safety. Noting that roughly 65 percent of voters supported taking action, he said the city must now carefully evaluate every responsible funding option — reserves, grants, financing, and a review of the cost-of-service structure — and that “doing nothing is simply not an option.”
Sources: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, official election results for the November 3, 2026 General Election (City of Pasadena Measure PFD), results as of November 6, 2026, 4:37 p.m.; Councilmember Tyron Hampton, District 1 newsletter (Nov. 6, 2026).
