Sales tax hike Measure T may have won big Tuesday, but even locals who were stumping for the ballot initiative said they were disappointed by the low election turnout.
Of the city’s 13,336 registered voters, 3,463 cast ballots in the recent contest, according to the county’s unofficial tally. That makes for a turnout of 26 percent, less than half the turnout when city voters rejected an identical measure in November 2006. That ballot also included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s contest against Phil Angelides and several high-profile ballot initiatives.
“That’s pitiful,” said Marvin Jones, chairman of the San Benito County Republican Central Committee. “I’m disappointed that so few citizens are interested in the community.”
Although there was no organized anti-tax campaign, Jones opposed the measure to increase the local sales tax from 7.25 percent to 8.25 percent. He even put up homemade “No on T” signs around town.
Jones said the absence of a high-profile race such as a presidential or gubernatorial contest weighted the vote in favor of Measure T, which is ahead 66 percent to 34 percent. It “probably would have passed anyway,” he said.
But those in favor of the tax hike, especially city employees with a “vested interest” in seeing it passed, were more likely to come out since there was nothing else on the ballot, he said.
“That was part of the goal, in my opinion,” Jones said.
City Councilman Doug Emerson, a spokesman for the Yes-on-T campaign, agreed that the low turnout probably helped his cause. If someone is drawn to the polls by another race and they don’t know about the sales tax, their instinct is to vote against it, Emerson said.
“What happened was that people who had strong opinions turned out,” he said.
Emerson said he’s also disappointed by the turnout, but he added: “It wasn’t unexpected. I actually thought it might be less.”
The council members weren’t thinking about turnout when they approved the special election in July, Emerson said. They just wanted to get the tax approved as soon as possible, he said.
“Passing it now means it becomes effective April 1,” he said. “If we had the election (during the presidential primary) in February, it wouldn’t start until July 1, and that three-month period turns into $800,000 or $900,000.”
Of course, Emerson said he’s still pleased by the results.
“It’s very reassuring,” he said. “I don’t want to use the word ‘mandate’ because the turnout was 26 percent, but the overwhelming majority of people who have an opinion supported a higher level of service. … Maybe this is stretching it, but I’m hoping this shows the public has some level of confidence in the city council.”
Like Jones and Emerson, San Benito County Registrar of Voters Joe Paul Gonzalez said he was disappointed by the turnout. That aside, Gonzalez said his first election as registrar went smoothly.
Local voters were forced to switch from electronic to paper ballots this year because Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified electronic voting machines in San Benito County and elsewhere. Despite the change, Gonzalez said his office counted everything except for 237 provisional and absentee ballots by 9:40 p.m. Tuesday. And for the first time, the results were posted on the Web site, www.sbcvote.us.
Asked if the paper system created any big challenges, Gonzalez said, “Well, San Francisco had to hand-count their ballots, so in a way, we were pretty lucky.”
