Plastic Bag Ban and Pot Won Larger Majorities in County
Santa Barbara Voted in Props by Several Points over Statewide Voters
Though the statewide election results are not finalized, the current tallies show Santa Barbara County voters mostly favored the state propositions at a higher rate than the rest of the state.
According to an update released on Thursday, 61 percent of Santa Barbara County voters supported legalizing pot for recreational use, 4.6 percent higher than statewide voters.
Likewise, Santa Barbara supported the ban on single use plastic bags at a higher rate than statewide voters did — 60 percent to 53 percent. Governor Jerry Brown’s juvenile criminal sentences initiative won 69 percent of Santa Barbara voters while receiving 64 percent approval statewide. The proposed cigarette tax also fared better here — 66 percent — than it did statewide — 64 percent.
On gun control, 64 percent of Santa Barbara County favored stronger restrictions for firearms and ammunition sales, just one percent higher than the rest of the state.
On multilingual education, 73 percent of voters approved the measure that allows efforts to approve multilingual education at the local level, nearly identical to the statewide approval. Likewise, Santa Barbara approved the statewide school facilities bond at the same rate as the rest of the state: 54 percent. The measure required just a simply majority to pass; in 2000, former State Senator Jack O’Connell changed the threshold as part of a successful education package.
By a narrow margin, Santa Barbara County supported repealing the death penalty, which failed statewide. The vote here was 51 percent to 48 percent. Statewide, just 46 percent of voters supported it. Instead, Californians voted to expedite the death penalty, approving the measure with 51 percent of the vote. Just 47 percent of Santa Barbara voters favored shortening the appeals process.
Forty-four percent of Santa Barbara voters supported requiring porn actors to wear condoms. It also failed statewide, with just 47 percent of California voters supporting it.
Just fewer than 50 percent of county voters supported implementing pricing standards for state prescription drugs so that they are comparable to the lowest Veterans Affairs prices. Just 46 percent of California voters supported it.
As of last Thursday, California had 2.8 million uncounted ballots, including 12,700 in Santa Barbara County. Most of these were provisional ballots, generally given to voters who lost their absentee ballot or to those who showed up at the wrong polling location. Elections officials must verify these people did not vote twice. Election results are not expected to be final until December 6.