In an election year viewed as tough for incumbents, Monterey County voters are sticking with a few of theirs:

District 2 Supervisor Lou Calcagno is keeping his seat, defeating challenger Ed Mitchell 54 to 46 percent as of Wednesday morning.

And county Superintendent of Schools Nancy Kotowski held off challenger Donna Alonzo Vaughan, 52 to 48 percent.

But Sheriff Mike Kanalakis has no such security: Though he led the vote with 37 percent, the fact that he got less than 50 percent means he'll head to a November runoff with Scott Miller, who got 35 percent. Challenger Fred Garcia, with almost 29 percent, is trailing but has not yet conceded; some 24,000 votes remain to be counted.

Also going head-to-head are Mary Mangels Zeeb (44 percent) and John McPherson (31 percent) in the treasurer/tax collector race. Ron Holly, with 25 percent, is out.

In statewide races, Republican Meg Whitman will take on Democrat Jerry Brown for governor. Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Steve Cooley are squaring off for the attorney general race, and Dem Gavin Newsom will try to knock the GOP's Abel Maldonado off his appointed lieutenant governor post.

Dem Anna Caballero will vie for her District 12 state Senate seat against GOP challenger Anthony Cannella, while incumbent Dem Bill Monning will defend his Assembly seat against Linda "Ellie" Black. In Assembly District 28, Luis Alejo beat out Janet Barnes for the Democratic nomination; he'll take on Republican Robert Bernosky in November.

Republican Carly Fiorina will battle Democrat Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat, and the GOP's Jeff Taylor will take on incumbent leftie Sam Farr in the 17th Congressional District.

Prop. 13, limiting property tax reassessments, passed handily with 85 percent voter approval.

Prop. 14, allowing for open primaries, also sailed through with 54 percent.

Prop. 15, repealing a ban on public financing of political campaigns, lost 43 to 58 percent, though the vote in Monterey County was a close 49.5 percent to 50.5 percent.

Prop. 16, a PG&E-funded initiative to make it harder to establish public utilities, was rejected by 53 percent of voters.

And Prop. 17, an auto insurance pet prop, failed, 48 to 52 percent.

Countywide turnout was just over 23 percent of registered voters, with only 24 percent of Dems bothering to vote, compared with 33 percent of Republicans.

Check the Weekly's Thursday edition for all the nail-biting drama, spur-of-the-moment quotes and culinary details of election night.

Monterey County election results

State of California election results