Santa Clara County found itself voting outside the box last
Tuesday, when it was one very few counties statewide to reject the
recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Virtually all rejecting counties were in
coastal Northern California, though Los Angeles County was close to
50 percent.
Santa Clara County found itself voting outside the box last Tuesday, when it was one very few counties statewide to reject the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Virtually all rejecting counties were in coastal Northern California, though Los Angeles County was close to 50 percent.
Santa Clara County voters supported Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won big elsewhere, with 38.6 percent of the vote. County voters rejected the recall 223,824 (58.2 percent) to 161,052 (41.8 percent).
Local voters faced long lines, as elsewhere in the state, causing several polling places to stay open 20 minutes past the 8 p.m. closing time. The county opened fewer polling stations than normal to save money. The recall election was expected to cost $67 million and actually cost more than $80 million.
San Francisco County led the anti-recall numbers reporting with 80.4 percent supporting Davis.
Alameda, San Mateo, Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties weighed in at more than 60 percent, while Contra Costa, Humbolt, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa and Solano counties tallied between 50 and 60 percent. Santa Clara County’s number was 58.2 percent against the recall.
All Southern and Central California counties voted to recall Davis led by Lassen County, at 76.8 percent and Sutter at 76.4 percent, both rural area of the state. San Benito County voted 55.5 percent for the recall.
Of 766,874 registered voters in Santa Clara County, 363,034, or 47.3 percent, voted Tuesday and 198,299 voted against.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the Democratic fall-back candidate, only won two counties: San Francisco with 63.4 percent and Alameda, with just over 50 percent. Even Santa Cruz County voted less than 46 percent.
Santa Clara County voted 40.5 percent for Bustamante, 38.6 percent for Schwarzenegger, 12.4 percent for McClintock, the conservative Republican, and 3.8 percent for Peter Camejo, the Green Party candidate.
Both statewide propositions on the ballot were defeated. Proposition 53, which would have reserved up to 3 percent of general fund revenues annually for infrastructure projects, except for schools and community colleges, found only 111,638 or 35.5 percent support in Santa Clara County. Voting against were 202,473, or 64.5 percent of voters.
Proposition 54, which would have banned identifying classifications by race, color or country of origin, was also defeated in the county, 230,457 to 99,653. Statewide numbers were similar: 2,869,133 or 36.1 percent voting yes and 5,071,867 or 63.9 percent voting no.
After both parties engaged in vigorous campaigns to get the vote out, it turned out that no single voting group backed Davis. And 63 percent of young men voting, chose the Terminator as their new leader. Only 52 percent of Hispanics voted statewide for Cruz Bustamante.
The Secretary of State began an official canvass of the vote on Thursday and must certify the results by Nov. 15. The new governor would be sworn in after that.
