An unexpectedly high number of absentee, paper and provisional
ballots that remain uncounted at the county Registrar of Voter
’s office will likely not change the outcome of Morgan Hill’s
mayoral and council races.
An unexpectedly high number of absentee, paper and provisional ballots that remain uncounted at the county Registrar of Voter’s office will likely not change the outcome of Morgan Hill’s mayoral and council races.
The winning candidates are at least 19 percentage points ahead of their challengers, a fairly comfortable margin in an election when the presidential race was decided by 3 percentage points.
While Registrar Jesse Durazo has until Nov. 30 to certify the election results, he said Thursday that the remaining ballots would take up to 10 days to count. By Friday afternoon 90,835 absentee, provisional and paper optical scan ballots were left to count out of an estimated total of 600,000.
One race was a bit to close to count in Santa Clara County: that of the 11th Congressional District where late comer Democrat Gerald McNerney challenged Republican incumbent Richard Pombo for the seat. As of Friday, Pombo had 6,517 votes or 51.99 percent and McNerney, 6,004 or 47.90 percent. Districtwide the race was not close, with Pombo having 139,697 or 61.3 percent and McNerney 88,393 or 38.7 percent of the votes counted.
Most of Pombo’s district covers the Central Valley, an area that tends to look for different qualities in representatives than the more suburban areas of Santa Clara and Alameda counties. The 11th is generally considered a “safe seat” for Pombo.
In the meantime Proposition 1A passed by a wide margin – 84.66 percent to 15.34 percent statewide – causing sighs of relief from city and county offices all over the state.
City Manager Ed Tewes recently described passing 1A as “critical.” The measure was the compromise between local governments and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that broke up last summer’s state budget impasse.
The state has taken money from sales, property and vehicle license taxes intended for city and county coffers, causing even greater shortfalls there in funds that pay for police and fire protection, park maintenance, libraries and health services. Morgan Hill gave up $700,000 this year.
1A allows the state to take $1.3 billion for each of two more years only and after that it must come, hat in hand, and ask nicely if it needs help.
The proposition also ends unfunded mandates, saying that if, in future, the state insists on a program, it must provide the funds to pay for it. What this means to Morgan Hill is some predictability and stability to make budgeting easier.
Councilman Steve Tate, who serves on the Finance and Audit Committee charged with a close inspection of all things budgetary, was pleased that the proposition won.
“Now we have something we can plan to,” Tate said Friday. “We can forecast on how much in sales tax we’ll get and we can count on it being ours in two years.”
He said the city will have to limp through the next two years but can factor the knowledge that the great takeaway will end into the use of reserves.
