Now it’s up to the county’s voters
Polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for duel of the land-use plans

Posted June 5, 2007

By DAWN WITHERS
The Salinas Californian

Thousands of Monterey County voters today will head to the polls to decide which of two competing land-use plans will guide development in the unincorporated areas of the county during the next two decades.

Three questions on the ballot, Measures A, B and C, pertain to which of the two general plans should take
effect: Measure A, a general plan initiative written by slow-growth advocates; or Measure C, a general plan authored by county staff and approved by the Board of Supervisors. This plan, also known as General Plan Update 4, also appears on the ballot as Measure B.

A fourth ballot question, Measure D, asks voters if the Butterfly Village development in the Rancho San Juan area should move forward. It’s also a referendum circulated by proponents of Measure A.

The Monterey County Elections Department is expecting voter turnout between 40 percent to 45 percent, of which up to 60 percent will be absentee voters, predicted Linda Tulett, registrar of voters. The county has 143,553 registered voters.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“A lot of people will choose not to vote if they don’t understand. You really have to know your stuff when you’re voting,” Tulett said. “If you don’t understand, come to the office and look at the material.”

Of the 79,521 absentee ballots sent out, the department had received about 36,000 as of Monday afternoon, she said.

The department expects about 10,000 more absentee ballots to be returned to polling locations throughout the county today, Tulett said, and 180 people have already voted early at the Elections Department’s voting booths in the past month.
Tulett said absentee results will be in by 8:15 tonight, and the first precinct results will be revealed about 9:30 p.m. Results will be updated on the Elections Department Web site, http://montereycountyelections.us, throughout the evening until the last polling place reports its numbers, she said.

Although there are three ballot measures pertaining to the general plan, most of the campaigning has focused on Measure A, with the “Yes on Measure A” team on one side and the “No on Measure A” effort on the other.

Neither side said it expects problems determining the ballot results.

Only one ballot answer — yes or no on any of the three measures — can pass. To prevail, a ballot answer needs two things: More than 50 percent of the vote — and more raw votes above 50 percent than any other ballot answer. If voters decline to approve Measure A and vote to repeal GPU4, the county will continue using its 1982 general plan, now in effect. Voters can cast ballots on any or all three of the measures.

Both campaigns have focused the bulk of their outreach efforts in Salinas, its surrounding communities, and the Monterey Peninsula, concentrating mainly on people likely to vote.

Get out the vote

Andre Charles, campaign manager for Plan for the People, the group running the “No on Measure A”
campaign, said volunteers spent the weekend and Monday precinct-walking in Salinas and are now focused on getting people to vote and prevailing tonight.

“Fortunately, I’ve been in enough elections so I don’t get too nervous, and we are just focusing on getting out the vote … and the last push for the election,”
Charles said.

Julie Engell, chairwoman of the Rancho San Juan Opposition Coalition and a member of the “Yes on Measure A” campaign, said the measure’s supporters also spent the weekend and Monday talking to voters.

“We’re doing the classic get-out-the-vote and last-minute campaigning,” Engell said. “We will be making sure our identified voters go to the polls.”

Contact Dawn Withers at withers@thecalifornian.com.