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Every vote counts: close local measure races on November 3
November 16, 2015
- By: Josh Altic
A few photo-finish races for local ballot measures on November 3, 2015, showed convincing evidence that every vote does count.
A citizen initiative to restrict development in Modesto, California, was defeated by a margin of just 215 votes, amounting to only 0.94 percent of the 22,837 votes cast on the measure. This measure proved dramatic until the very end since election night results revealed the "yes" votes a nose ahead, but the final official results tally showed that the measure was defeated. Measure I determined whether Wood Colony and other areas like it would become a commercial and residential development or remain largely agricultural and open space land.
In Placerville Union School District, which is in El Dorado County, California, 19 votes were the difference between approval and defeat for a $3.2 million capital improvements bond issue. The measure, which required a 55 percent supermajority vote, received 55.78 percent approval.
Placerville school district's bond issue wasn't the only close race in El Dorado County. In a community services district called Cosumnes River CSD, a parcel tax requiring a two-thirds (66.67%) vote for approval received just eight votes shy of the required approval rate. Ninety-seven voters out of the 200 registered in the district cast a vote on the measure. With a voter base that small and a race that close, every vote counted for Measure D, which would have charged every property owner in the district $100 more per year in taxes.
The stakes were high and the deciding margins slim in two large school districts in Los Angeles County, California. Measure S in Compton Unified School District, which serves about 24,710 students, and Measure O in Walnut Valley Unified School District, which serves 14,658 students, were designed to authorize $350 million and $208 million in new school debt, respectively. In each district, about 4,500 voters submitted ballots. The latest election results tally, current as of November 13, 2015, showed the bond issue in Compton Unified School District ahead of the required 55 percent supermajority vote by 63 votes, or 2.82 percent.
Measure O, on the other hand, was behind by 76 votes, a margin of 3.54 percent. For the bond measure in Compton USD, each deciding vote represented over $5.5 million in debt.
Marijuana legalization, an important issue in many states and cities throughout the country, proved divisive in Portage, Michigan. On November 3, 2015, city voters were nearly evenly divided over the proposed initiative to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. When all the votes were counted on election night, there were just 139 more "yes" votes than "no" votes, amounting to 1.28 percent of the 10,861 voters who cast a ballot.
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