Hollister
– Fifty-nine percent of San Benito County’s registered voters
turned out in the Nov. 7 election, 8 percent higher than the
state’s turnout.
Hollister – Fifty-nine percent of San Benito County’s registered voters turned out in the Nov. 7 election, 8 percent higher than the state’s turnout.
As of Monday afternoon, the county was approaching the end of its vote-counting process. All precinct and absentee ballots had been counted, and only provisional ballots remained.
Before the election, County Registrar John Hodges predicted that 50 percent of San Benito’s registered voters would participate, nine percent higher than in June’s primary. Hodges acknowledged that he’d underestimated the voters; he also noted that Tony Ruiz, former chair of San Benito’s Democratic Central Committee, had correctly guessed the turnout would be 60 percent.
“As always, Tony was right,” Hodges said.
Ruiz said it was probably local contests – including the Del Webb-sponsored Measure S, Anna Caballero’s bid for state Assembly and the contest between Tracie Cone and Reb Monaco for the District 4 seat on the Board of Supervisors – that brought out San Benito voters.
“The governor’s race was as boring as you could possibly get,” Ruiz said.
Statewide, the turnout was 51 percent of registered voters. The county also beat the state’s turnout in the primary, when 41 percent of the county’s voters cast ballots, compared to 34 percent statewide.
Neighboring Santa Clara County has the same turnout in the Nov. 7 election, 59 percent. California’s highest turnout was in Trinity County, with 77 percent.
In the Nov. 7 election, San Benito voters had a chance to make decisions on a number of high-profile federal, state and local issues. National dissatisfaction with the Iraq war saw the Democrats take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, while incumbent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, trounced Democratic challenger Phil Angelides. Locally, Measure S saw impassioned support and opposition; the unsuccessful Yes-on-S campaign was the most expensive in county history.
Hodges said it’s hard to know what brought San Benito voters out in such unexpectedly high numbers, especially before he sees the turnout for individual precincts. He added that he’s calculated the turnout for supervisor District 4 – where former Pinnacle newspaper publisher Tracie Cone trails incumbent Reb Monaco by 58 votes, a difference of about 1 percent – at around 60 percent.
On election night, the Free Lance asked voters outside the Dunne Park polling station why they were voting. Most said they are regular voters who try to participate in every election; they said they couldn’t point to any single issue that had brought them to the polls this year.
The only exception was preschool teacher Denise Carter. When asked why she’d come out, Carter said she had special incentive to show up for the current election.
“I have an old parent running for state Senate,” Carter said. Namely, she said she’d once taught victorious state Sen. Jeff Denham’s daughter, and she’d come out to support Denham.
Hodges said he’s noticed an increase in absentee voters. With each election, more and more voters cast absentee ballots, Hodges said. In the recent election, the county’s statistics show that around 42 percent of votes were cast via absentee ballot.
Overall, Hodges said that although he can’t explain it, he’s glad turnout was high.
“If we spend an awful lot of money throwing a party and no one shows up, the cost per vote goes up,” Hodges said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at (831) 637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
