LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County voters gave their support to school bond measures, a cannabis cultivation tax and a general sales tax in Lakeport, and preliminary results show that a road tax in Clearlake may be headed for victory.
Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley issued the preliminary tally of precincts and some early absentees early Wednesday morning.
The results won't become final for another month while Fridley and her staff work to count thousands of absentee and provisional ballots in order to certify the election, so there are expected to be some changes in voting percentages.
The preliminary results showed that Measure V, the city of Clearlake's latest – and most road-focused – attempt to pass a dedicated sales tax, had received strong voter support, with 1,736 yes votes, or 67.3 percent of the vote, as opposed to 842 no votes, or 32.7 percent of the vote.
Measure V is a one-cent specific tax expected to annually generate $1.6 million that would be used for road improvements. In order for a specific tax to pass, it needs a supermajority of at least 66.7 percent.
Because of the measure's slim margin in the preliminary returns, a conclusion about its passage will have to wait for Fridley's final election certification.
However, most of the rest of the measures that went before county voters in the general election appear to be assured of victory thanks to large voter approval margins.
The school bond measures must pass by 55 percent, with the remaining measures needing a simple majority to win.
Measure A, Lucerne Elementary's $4 million school bond measure, received 488 yes votes, or 68.9 percent, compared to 220 no votes, totaling 31.1 percent.
Measure B, which doesn't raise taxes but only increases the South Lake County Fire Protection District's appropriations limit, received 1,518 yes votes, or 70.9 percent, versus 623 no votes, totaling 29.1 percent.
Measure C, which would institute a cultivation tax on cannabis growing in the unincorporated county – but exempts growing for personal medical use – received 7,905 yes votes, or 62.2 percent, and 4,811 no votes, or 37.8 percent.
Measure Q, the Yuba Community College bond measure, reauthorizes $33.5 million in bonds approved by voters in November 2006 as Measure J. It received 3,500 yes votes, or 59.9 percent, versus 2,342 no votes, or 40.1 percent.
Measure Y, Konocti Unified's $29.6 million school bond measure, received 2,624 yes votes, or 66.8 percent, in the preliminary count, versus 1,304 no votes, or 33.2 percent of the vote.
The city of Lakeport's one-cent sales tax, Measure Z – expected to raise $1.5 million annually for roads and public services – received 825 votes, or 61.8 percent of the vote, while no votes totaled 510, or 38.2 percent of the vote.
Clearlake voters also had two other measures to consider, W and X, which proposed changing the city clerk and city treasurer posts, respectively, from elected to appointed positions. In the case of the city treasurer post, it's been almost a decade since anyone ran for the position, and its duties have since been rolled into the city manager's job.
Preliminary results showed that voters supported making the city clerk spot appointed, with Measure W receiving yes votes totaling 1,234, or 50.3 percent of the vote, while no votes totaled 1,218, or 49.7 percent.
However, there was an opposite result when it came to the city treasurer spot, with yes votes totaling 1,203, or 48.8 percent of the vote, versus 1,263 no votes, or 51.2 percent of the vote.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.