It's showtime for voters on rival plans

Posted June 3, 2007

By JIM JOHNSON
Herald Salinas Bureau

The seven-year debate over Monterey County rural growth finally will be in the hands of county voters from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. That's when polls will be open at 84 voting sites throughout the county for a special election that
represents a long-building showdown over county growth.

After weeks of furious campaigning that filled television screens and nearly every inch of soil that could bear a campaign sign, county voters must decide
the fate of four land-use measures on the special-election ballot.

There are 143,553 registered voters for the election. Despite the heated campaign rhetoric portraying the election as a crucial crossroads for the county, fewer than half of the eligible voters are expected to cast ballots.

Linda Tulett, county registrar of voters handling her first election since starting the job May 21, expects a 35- to 45-percent turnout. That would be a respectable showing for a special election, she said.

The return of absentee ballots to the Elections Department is lagging behind levels that officials had expected because of the high-profile issues. By
mid-Friday afternoon, about 32,800 of the 79,450 absentee ballots had been returned to Salinas elections headquarters.

"We'd expected 60 percent or about that," said Tulett, who was deputy elections director in San Francisco before being hired here. "We don't have that, but we're still hopeful."

At the top of ballot, voters will decide whether to say yes or no to Measure A, which calls for a general plan initiative that would be more restrictive on
rural growth than the general plan approved by county supervisors in January.
Measure A has been the focus of 99.9 percent of the campaigning, with proponents saying it would protect the county from overdevelopment and opponents saying it would stifle needed growth and diminish property
rights.

Measures B and C ask voters whether to repeal or adopt the general plan approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Measure D asks voters whether the Butterfly Village golf subdivision in Rancho San Juan near Salinas should be approved.

Tulett succeeds former Registrar Tony Anchundo, who resigned last year and was later convicted of charging personal items on county credit cards.

She said she was asked about stepping into the middle of a new job just two weeks before the election. But Tulett said she's handled enough elections that she could start the day before, let alone a couple weeks before, Election Day

"I know what we need to be doing," she said Friday morning, as poll workers were getting training.

While Tuesday's election will be a high point for thousands of county residents tuned into county land-use politics, Tulett said, "Every election is exciting when you are putting on the show."

Larry Parsons can be reached at 646-4379 or lparsons@montereyherald.com.

Voting details

• To find where you vote, you can call the Monterey County Elections Department at 796-1499, check the cover of your sample ballot, or go to the department's Web site: www.MontereyCountyElections.us.
• A few polling places were canceled after sample ballots were mailed out. Signs and maps directing voters to their new polls will be posted at those sites. If a polling place was canceled within a week of the election, a notice should have been mailed to voters by the department.
• A sample of the official ballot is in your voter information pamphlet. Going over the information and pre-marking your sample ballot can help you vote more quickly at the polling place.