General plan voters head to mailbox
20 percent of absentee ballots already filed

By LARRY PARSONS
Herald Staff Writer

Absentee ballots won't be tallied until Election Day, June 5 Thousands of absentee voters already have sealed their decisions on four Monterey County growth measures on the June 5 ballot.

Two weeks after county election officials mailed out 75,000 absentee ballots, about 20 percent — or 15,000 — of the ballots have been returned to the Elections Department. They won't be tallied, of course, until after the polls close Election Day.

"This is a little more than usual," said Claudio Valenzuela, assistant registrar of voters. "Normally, it just trickles in at first."

The early, heavy absentee voting suggests a substantial core of voters probably made up their minds long ago about the competing general plan proposals and the Butterfly Village development.

"Some people know exactly what they want," Valenzuela said. "They probably see it pretty black-and-white."

Does that mean the turnout for the June special election will be higher than normal? Not necessarily.

"It's still too early to predict," said Cliff Staton, campaign consultant for the Yes on Measure A campaign, which wants voters to approve the growth-restrictive general plan initiative. "There's very little in terms of history about the (county) turnout."

Andre Charles, consultant for the anti-Measure A campaign, said the early turnout by absentee voters indicates residents are aware of the high stakes in the election. The competing general plans would affect the county for the next 20 years.

"The level of interest is higher than typical in off-year elections," Charles said.
On the June ballot, voters will decide three general plan issues: Measure A, the citizen-driven initiative known as GPI; Measure B, which asks voters whether they want to repeal the supervisor-approved general plan, known as GPU4; and Measure C, which asks voters whether they want to approve GPU4. Also, Measure D asks voters whether they favor the Butterfly Village golf-residential project just north of Salinas.

The general plan campaigns, several weeks ago, began beaming their messages at the increasingly important flock of absentee voters. They accounted for more than 60 percent of all votes cast in last year's primary and general elections.

"It used to be campaigns would focus on really getting out the vote in the last week before an election,"
Charles said. "Now you're doing the get-out-the-vote effort for a month."

Staton said the growing prevalence of absentee voters forced both campaigns to roll out television ads more than four weeks ago, before the absentee ballots went out. "We began campaigning early," he said.

The furious debate over Measure A — which has become the sole focus of the campaigns — could mean that many voters have made up their minds already. After all, the debate over rural growth and a new general plan has lasted more than seven years. The early crunch of absentee votes adds weight to that idea.

But Staton said there are still many undecided voters.
"We're still finding a lot of voters very much undecided," he said. "We would expect to find that until Election Day."

Both campaigns have paid a lot of attention to absentee voters. "We have focused grass-roots efforts on absentee voters," Charles said.

Getting voters to vote by mail with absentee ballots, Staton said, "makes our job easier on Election Day."

While he wouldn't predict an overall turnout, Staton said 60 to 70 percent of absentee voters likely will cast ballots in the special election.

Monday was the last day to register to vote June 5. The number of registered voters in the county stood at 145,705 in April. Those ranks will grow as election officials tally up recent registrants. Election workers said they received voter registration cards at a rate of about 100 a day during the past week.

The final day to request an absentee, mail-in ballot is May 29.

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

Absentee ballots by the numbers:

▪ 75,000 Number of absentee ballots mailed out in the last two weeks
▪ 15,000 Number returned as of Monday or about 20 percent 60 to 70 Percent
  of those receiving absentee ballots expected to return them
▪ 145,705 Number of registered voters in the county in April
▪ 100 Number of voter registration cards received per day up to Monday's
  registration deadline
▪ May 29 The final day to request an absentee, mail-in ballot