06/12/08
By Shaun Bishop
MediaNews

Voter turnout in San Mateo County for the June 3 election was the lowest in a primary in at least eight years, according to final election tallies released Thursday.

Only 28.9 percent of voters weighed in on the party nominees for a state Assembly seat, a few noncompetitive county supervisor races and a handful of state and local measures, among other contests.

The fact that the presidential primary was Feb. 5 this year instead of the customary June date probably sapped voters' willingness to return to the polls for local races, election officials said.

"The end result is all the attention and participation went to the February election,'' Elections Manager David Tom said. "Certainly, it's worth noting you have a fairly important election and had less than 29 percent'' turnout.

Results for some close races could not be finalized until Thursday, when election workers finished counting an estimated 25,000 provisional and late absentee ballots, slightly less than a quarter of all the votes. About 64.5 percent of votes were cast by mail.

Supervisor Jerry Hill can finally relish being the Democrats' nominee for the 19th District state Assembly seat, beating his two opponents with 37.1 percent of the vote in a close race.

"I'm happy that it's finally over and certainly thrilled at the victory and looking forward to the election in November and moving on to helping to solve some of the problems that the state's facing in Sacramento," Hill said.

Millbrae Mayor Gina Papan, who conceded to Hill on Tuesday, finished with 34.5 percent of the vote; Richard Holober, the San Mateo Community College District president, finished third with 28.4 percent.

In November, Hill will face Republican nominee Catherine Brinkman, who won 78.4 percent of the vote in a two-person race, and Libertarian Brian Perry, who ran unopposed. The district covers San Mateo County from Brisbane to San Mateo.

In other final but uncertified results:

Jackie Speier crushed her three Democratic challengers in the primary for the 12th Congressional District seat, taking 91 percent of the vote. She will be heavily favored in November against a Republican, a Green and a Libertarian to win a two-year term representing parts of San Mateo and San Francisco counties.

Supervisors Mark Church and Rose Jacobs Gibson easily won re-election to their third four-year terms. Supervisor Adrienne Tissier ran unopposed.

Measure O, which would have raised money for parks, failed to hit the required two-thirds threshold, capturing 60.5 percent of the vote. Measure Q, the Half Moon Bay special tax, passed with 67.3 percent.

Don Franchi received 51.5 percent of the vote to defeat Jerry E. Nastari for a rare open seat on the Superior Court bench.

Now, the San Mateo County Elections Office will turn its attention to manually recounting 1 percent of the votes for most contests. Per new state regulations, officials will do 10 percent recounts for two extremely close school bond measures because they were within 1 percent of passing.

Measure N, a parcel tax that would benefit the Pacifica School District, appeared to narrowly pass with 66.7 percent. Measure P, which would levy an annual parcel tax of $78 for five years for the Millbrae School District, appeared to fail with 66.3 percent.

Once the official canvass of the vote is done, Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum must certify the results by July 1 and present them to the county Board of Supervisors for acceptance.

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