Yokoyama, Vo Fighting for 2nd Place in Cerritos Election

Grace Hu, Chuong Vo, Frank Aurelio Yokoyama

CERRITOS — Semi-official returns for the April 11 election for Cerritos City Council show one clear winner and two neck-and-neck for second place.

Former mayor and business owner Grace Hu was in the lead with 2,879 votes. Police detective Chuong Vo was second with 2,592 and real estate attorney Frank Aurelio Yokoyama only 24 votes behind with 2,568.

As up to 1,000 votes or more remain uncounted, the candidates are awaiting the final results. The winners will succeed Mayor George Ray and Councilmember Carol Chen.

Hu was first elected to the council in 1992 and served until 2001. Vo serves on the Cerritos Planning Commission. Yokoyama, a former member of the commission, previously ran in 2013 and 2015, losing by only 27 votes last time.

Yokoyama ran on a five-point plan for safety that included keeping a full-service Cerritos sheriff’s station and the Sky Knight helicopter patrol.

The seven candidates competing for two open seats on the council also included retired businessman and former councilmember Bruce Barrows (1,886), technology consultant Anantha Ramachandran (1,088), Cerritos College professor and former assemblymember Sally Havice (552) and software professional Ashish Kumar Verma (296).