NEVADA COUNTY, Calif. June 8, 2016 – Nevada County voters appear to have dealt defeats to county-wide Measure W and to Nevada City’s Measure Y.
With 27,852 votes counted on election night, the county’s controversial outdoor growing ban on cannabis has been shown the door. 15,845 voters said No on W and 11,585 were in the Yes column.
Measure Y, Nevada City’s vacation rental restriction mandate, was defeated by an almost 2:1 margin: 753 No votes vs 400 Yes votes.
Where did the voters go?
Nevada County has a high voter turnout historically. This election seems to buck the trend, even taking into account the outstanding ballots from election night.
– Votes counted: 27,852 of 66,178 eligible voters = 42.09%
– 4,538 Vote by Mail ballots remain to be counted.
– 1,371 Provisional ballots remain to be counted.
– 179.5 (.5 = one card of the two card ballot missing) Ballots voted but not scanned.
– Unknown number of Truckee ballots remaining to be counted.
– Unknown number of ballots still in the U.S. Mail.
Even if 12-15,000 votes are outstanding, an estimate we’ll attempt to confirm later today, turnout would only rise to approximately 62-65%.
For now, there is insufficient data to ascertain if a large block of voters did not vote or if the lackluster returns are spread over all demographics and party preferences.
Next steps
On Thursday, June 9th, the official 28-day canvass period begins. The Elections Office will count all the remaining ballots, conduct a 1% manual count and finally certify the results.
Then, it’s onto November.