# Waterford City Council Compare records and positions simply between Christine R. Harris, Jeremy T. Hedden, Todd R. Valdez, and 1 more for Waterford City Council at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would hold one of two open at-large seats. The seats are on Waterford's 5-member City Council. They would vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Waterford is a Stanislaus County city of about 9,120 residents. The Mayor is elected separately and is not on this ballot. Two other Council Members also serve alongside this seat. A professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. The elected council sets policy. Council Members are elected at-large, citywide, with no council districts. The term is four years. - Jurisdiction: City of Waterford - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Seats: 2 - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/waterford-council - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 1, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 80 out of 100 (Strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Christine R. Harris** — Incumbent - **Jeremy T. Hedden** — Retail Merchandiser - **Todd R. Valdez** — Sales Consultant - **Desiree Turnbough** — Accounting Clerk A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Four candidates are running for two seats on the Waterford City Council: incumbent Christine R. Harris against three challengers -- Jeremy T. Hedden, Todd R. Valdez, and Desiree Turnbough. The two highest vote-getters win outright on November 3 -- no runoff. Waterford's City Council sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Stanislaus County city of about 9,120 residents, operating under a council-manager government where a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations while the elected council sets policy. Council Members are elected at-large, citywide -- there are no council districts -- to 4-year terms. Waterford's Mayor is a separate, directly elected office with a 2-year term, but no Mayor's race appears on this county's candidate list at all this cycle -- unlike other small Stanislaus cities where a single-candidate Mayor's race still gets printed on the ballot. That total absence suggests the seat drew only its sitting incumbent and was filled by City Council appointment under state election law rather than placed on the ballot, though this dataset could not independently confirm that with a city notice: the city's own site was unreachable throughout this pass. ## Christine R. Harris Christine R. Harris is a sitting Waterford Council Member running for reelection. Harris is the only one of the four candidates with a ballot designation, printed simply as "Incumbent" on the county's official candidate list -- independently corroborated by Wikipedia's current Waterford council roster, which lists them among the sitting Council Members. No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass beyond that officeholder status. **Strengths:** Sitting officeholder status, the only candidate in this race with a checkable record in the seat. **Trade-offs:** No independent news coverage or voting record was found in this pass -- only their incumbency and their name on the county list and the city roster. **Keep in mind:** This dataset could not reach Waterford's own site in this pass beyond archived snapshots that predate the 2026 filing season, so no fuller account of their council record -- good or bad -- could be checked beyond what's here. ## Jeremy T. Hedden Jeremy T. Hedden is challenging incumbent Christine R. Harris for one of Waterford's two open Council seats. Hedden's filed ballot designation is "Retail Merchandiser." No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass. **Strengths:** No independent record, background, or platform was found for Hedden beyond the name and filed occupation on the county's certified candidate list -- the same gap for every non-incumbent here. **Trade-offs:** Voters have no statement, platform, or public record to weigh for them beyond that filing. **Keep in mind:** A thin public profile here reflects what could be found in this pass -- Waterford's own site was unreachable throughout, and this dataset's WebSearch budget was already exhausted before this jurisdiction's research began -- not a judgment about their candidacy. ## Todd R. Valdez Todd R. Valdez is challenging incumbent Christine R. Harris for one of Waterford's two open Council seats. Valdez's filed ballot designation is "Sales Consultant." No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass. **Strengths:** No independent record, background, or platform was found for Valdez beyond the name and filed occupation on the county's certified candidate list -- the same gap for every non-incumbent here. **Trade-offs:** Voters have no statement, platform, or public record to weigh for them beyond that filing. **Keep in mind:** A thin public profile here reflects what could be found in this pass -- Waterford's own site was unreachable throughout, and this dataset's WebSearch budget was already exhausted before this jurisdiction's research began -- not a judgment about their candidacy. ## Desiree Turnbough Desiree Turnbough is challenging incumbent Christine R. Harris for one of Waterford's two open Council seats. Turnbough's filed ballot designation is "Accounting Clerk." No independent news profile, campaign website, or civic-board record was found for them in this pass. **Strengths:** No independent record, background, or platform was found for Turnbough beyond the name and filed occupation on the county's certified candidate list -- the same gap for every non-incumbent here. **Trade-offs:** Voters have no statement, platform, or public record to weigh for them beyond that filing. **Keep in mind:** A thin public profile here reflects what could be found in this pass -- Waterford's own site was unreachable throughout, and this dataset's WebSearch budget was already exhausted before this jurisdiction's research began -- not a judgment about their candidacy. ## Sources 1. [Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters -- "Unofficial Candidate List," General Election, Nov. 3, 2026 (refetched fresh this session; PDF metadata date-stamped 8/31/2026, page footers time-stamped 7:57 AM 8/31/2026): the "CITY OF WATERFORD" block of the "MUNICIPAL OFFICES" section names one office -- COUNCIL MEMBER (Vote for 2): *Christine R. Harris (Incumbent), Jeremy T. Hedden (Retail Merchandiser), Todd R. Valdez (Sales Consultant), Desiree Turnbough (Accounting Clerk) -- with each candidate's filed ballot designation; no Mayor heading appears for Waterford anywhere in the document.](https://www.stanvote.gov/pdf/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters -- "City Clerks" directory: confirms that Waterford candidate filing runs through the city's own clerk, not the county, and gives the city's official contact information (101 E Street / PO Box 199, Waterford, CA 95386; 209-874-2328; cityofwaterford.org)](https://www.stanvote.gov/city-clerks.shtm) 3. [Wikipedia -- Waterford, California: 2020 Census population (9,120, up from 8,456 in 2010) and the current council roster -- Mayor Charlie Goeken, Vice Mayor Jamie Hilton, Council Members Lupita Gutierrez, Christine Harris, and Elizabeth Talbott -- independently confirming Christine Harris as a sitting Council Member.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterford,_California) 4. [City of Waterford -- own "City Council" page, read via a Wayback Machine capture dated 12/26/2025 since the live site is Cloudflare-gated this session: confirms a council-manager government organized as a general law city in 1969, a directly elected Mayor serving a 2-year term versus Council Members' 4-year terms, all at-large/citywide with no districts, and $300/month council compensation (text unchanged from an earlier 2021 capture).](http://web.archive.org/web/20251226011608/https://cityofwaterford.org/city-council/) 5. [City of Waterford -- own "FPPC Campaign Statements" index, read via a Wayback Machine capture dated 11/11/2025 (predating the 2026 candidate-filing window): lists historical 2020-2025 filings for council members Hilton, Kitchens, Harris, Stepp, and Talbott, and shows Mayor Charlie Goeken filed an FPPC Form 501 candidate-intention statement for "Election 2024"; no 2026-cycle filing is visible in this capture for any of the four 2026 Council candidates.](http://web.archive.org/web/20251111174536/https://cityofwaterford.org/fppc-campaign-statements/) 6. [A documented site-access gap, not a claim about any candidate's background, the Mayor race's disposition, or fundraising: the live City of Waterford site (cityofwaterford.org) returned a Cloudflare managed challenge (HTTP 403) to every path tried this session -- the root domain, /city-council, and /elections -- under both WebFetch and a direct curl with a realistic browser User-Agent, and no Wayback Machine capture exists from the actual 2026 candidate-nomination window (Jul-Aug 2026) for any Waterford elections-related page.](https://www.cityofwaterford.org/) ## The rest of the ballot Waterford City Council is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Waterford City Council — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/waterford-council (sources last retrieved September 1, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.