Quiet Super Tuesday in San Mateo County

by Donna Gifford

There was plenty of sushi, chicken satay, empanadas, fruit, veggies and cookies for the handful of people who showed up in the rain to experience first-hand election results at the brand new County Assessors Office in San Mateo County.

There were no surprises in this first primary election of the new millennium in San Mateo County. As expected, Al Gore is the favored candidate of the Democratic Party, but he is also the choice of 40.3 percent of all voters in the county. The Republicans chose George W. Bush over John McCain.

The Democrats have swept the Senate and House of Representatives. United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, U. S. Representative Tom Lantos and U. S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo all remain in their current positions. At the state level, Democrats Byron Sher, Kevin Shelley, Lou Papan and Joe Smitian were all elected. No Republicans were elected to any of the state level senate or assembly positions.

Voters only had one choice each for the three open Board of Supervisors positions, representing the first, fourth and fifth districts. With no competition, each of these nominees received 100 percent of the votes for their position.

Proposition 21, the juvenile crime initiative, was turned down by 54.5 percent of the San Mateo County voters. Although judges can decide this issue on a case by case basis, 45.5 percent of the voters in this county want to lock them up across the board.

Proposition 22, the limit on marriages initiative, also had the voters in this county split down the middle. It passed with a 50.7 percent vote. San Mateo County voters turned down Props 23, 25 and 27, which are None of the Above, Election Campaigns and Contribution Spending and Term Limit Declarations for congressional Candidates respectively. Props 30 and 31 were also turned down.

Proposition 10 was passed by a slim margin in November 1998. It is a tax on cigarettes and tobacco products that is raising $670 million a year to fund early childhood development programs. Today, voters were asked to repeal this tax by voting "Yes" on Proposition 28.

Final returns are in, however, and the voters of San Mateo County did not pass Proposition 28. With all 522 precincts reporting, 78.1 percent of the voters said "No." Patricia Siegel, member of the Children and Families Commission, said tonight, "This is an enormous relief. That kind of strong return is especially important because it means the voters of California are beginning to understand the promise and importance of this work. It is a double victory because, 'A' it means we can continue our work and 'B' it means people really do understand the issue. This will help us to move forward with even more enthusiasm."

According to the San Mateo County 1999 Annual Report, its elections office was the first in the state of California to provide the November 1998 General Election results. Surely Warren Slocum - who is chief elections officer as well as assessor and county clerk recorder - will be trying to repeat this achievement tonight. The county works to keep up with new technology and even plans to have limited Internet voting in the November 2000 Presidential Primacy.

This year, for the first time, San Mateo County has provided a Web site for voters to get up-to-the-minute election results from the comfort of their homes. Voters were able to see the first election results at 8:05 p.m., just five minutes after the polls closed. These initial results come from the absentee ballots. Then at 8:30 p.m., the first precinct results started rolling in and the results of all 522 precincts were tallied and available on the Internet by 9:55 p.m.

The election website is called ShapeTheFuture.Org and "its driving principleis that each citizen, by voting and thus reaffirming a commitment to democracy, has directed hand in shaping the future of community, state and nation."