February 7, 2008 - Tehama County turnout a county low

Paper: Red Bluff Daily News (CA)
Title: Tehama County turnout a county low
Date: February 7, 2008
Author: REBECCA WOLF-DN Assistant News Editor

RED BLUFF - Only 21.84 percent of county voters turned out at the polls Tuesday. Add that to the vote-by-mail voters and Tehama County's turnout for the presidential primary was about 46.25 percent - the lowest presidential primary turnout since at least 1976, which is as far back as the county records go.

But Clerk and Recorder Bev Ross said Wednesday that there are another 3,000 vote-by-mail ballots that have to be counted and that would bring the turnout up to about 57 percent of the 28,875 registered voters.

Ross said 1,200 vote-by-mail ballots , formerly known as absentee, and 300 provisional ballots came into the polling sites. The rest came by mail Tuesday.

Those ballots were being counted Wednesday and Thursday although the results most likely won't be released until the election is finalized in a couple of weeks.

Ross said the turnout at the polls was low, but said the county had pushed for voters to opt for vote-by-mail. The number of vote-by-mail registered voters had jumped in this election from about 9,000 to more than 14,000. She added that turnout seems to be lower in primary elections than in regular elections .

Many had predicted long lines and slow final results across the state in California's first election since Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified most of the electronic voting machines last year.

That decision meant that Tehama County, along with many others, had to store its millions of dollars worth of electronic voting machines, repurchase the older voting booths it had sold, and pay for hundreds of pages of paper ballots .

Ross said that despite a different system, Tuesday's election "went well" for Tehama County, and there were no major problems.

More than 180 workers manned the polls and counted the ballots Tuesday, working long hours, some from 6 a.m. Tuesday to 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The local poll results were released at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, with percentages changing slightly from the initial reported results.

With all 47 county precincts reporting and 7,050 vote-by-mail ballots , McCain got the support of Tehama County Republicans, taking 38.33 percent.

Romney came in second with 31.39 percent for Republicans and Huckabee third with 16.87 percent.

Hillary Clinton got the backing of Tehama Democrats with 50.39 percent while Obama took 31.15 percent.

When it came to the state propositions, county voters voted down every measure but Proposition 95, which was one of four propositions dealing with Indian gaming contracts of four Southern California tribes.

Vote-by-mail voters had turned down the proposition, but voters who turned out at the polls gave it enough support to raise the yes count to 50.07 percent. (That translates to 18 votes.)

The other gaming propositions, 94, 96 and 97, were each denied by about 50 percent of the voters. The difference also translated to a handful of votes in each case. That can change as the rest of the vote-by-mail ballots are counted.

Tehama County followed the rest of the state in saying no to the rest of the propositions.

Proposition 91, a transportation funding measure, was turned down by 61.13 percent of the voters; Proposition 92, which would lower the fees for community college students, by 64.68 percent of the voters; and Proposition 93, which would change term-limit rules, by 63.22 percent.

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One election down, state primary to go

RED BLUFF - There will be no rest for the weary Elections Department.

Next week the filing period opens for the June state primary election in which three county supervisor seats will be up for grabs.

All three supervisors, Gregg Avilla in District 1, George Russell in District 2 and Ron Warner in District 5, have said they will seek reelection.

That election will also have the state Assembly seat, congressional seats and Senate seats and the central committee seats for all political parties.

Some school districts have also talked about placing local measures on the ballot .

The filing period will be Feb. 11 through March 7.

The Elections Department is accepting signatures in lieu for that election .

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Section: News
Record Number: 8195686
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