Point Reyes Light - November 9, 2000

Shoreline Measures A & B pass easily, although mail ballots anger some voters

 

By Don Schinske

Voters in Shoreline School District Tuesday didn’t even pause at the two-thirds majority needed to pass $7-million bond for school improvements, and sent Measure B to victory with a whopping 81 percent.

Its partner, Measure A, the renewal of parcel tax that help pays for art, music, and other programs in Shoreline, got a similar push.

Factoring in the slightly more conservative vote in Valley Ford and Bodega Bay, measures A and B sailed through respectively with 78 percent and 76 percent of the vote.

"It was a very, very pleasant surprise that there was such overwhelming support from our community," said Shoreline Supt. Stephen Rosenthal on Wednesday. "Eighty percent is a real slam-dunk. This shows very solid approval from the people in the district for our programs."

Otherwise election day was a mess in parts of West Marin, where voters got turned back at some polling places after being told their precinct had been changed, and their ballots should’ve been mailed in.

"People are really upset," said Beth Tacherra of Bolinas, who with many people was told at their usual polling place, the town community center, that they couldn’t cast a ballot there. "My husband [Ernie] was born and raised here. He was so distraught."

The culprit was the race for the Marin Resource Conservation District, the sprawling erosion-control and ranchland-management district that is based in Point Reyes Station and takes in all of many West Marin precincts but only parts of others, such as Bolinas, Stinson Beach, Tomales, and Lagunitas.

In the Tacherras’ case, they are in a small part of Bolinas that is in the RCD, meaning they had a separate ballot to mail that included the RCD race. Beth Tacherra said the county never alerted her or her neighbors to the situation and they all feel disenfranchised on the most basic level.

The right to vote "is one of the only things we have left," Tacherra said. "It’s not right."

Race pro forma anyway

Ironically, the RCD race wasn’t at all important, since rancher Ed Pozzi, one of the four candidates for three board seats, died in September.

A hodgepodge of ballots was also used elsewhere. In Hicks and Chileno valleys, three mail-in ballots were used because some of the area is in the Petaluma High School District and some not, and some of it is in the Marin Health Care District and some not (although all of it is in the RCD).

Those who could vote in Bolinas and Stinson Beach returned Tomas Krakauer to Bolinas-Stinson School Board. Joining him will be publicist Kim Bender.

Bolinas voters also passed advisory Measure G, which gives directors of the town’s utility district leeway to explore a change in garbage haulers.

"It’s not a very strong mandate," said BPUD director Vic Amoroso Wednesday of the 55 percent town support. "But it does say the community wants to look at alternatives to Waste Management," which owns hauler Shoreline Disposal.

No electoral votes, though

In voting for US president, West Marin voters liked Al Gore (66 percent) over Ralph Nader (17 percent) or George Bush (17 percent).

The Green candidate who fared best overall in West Marin was US Senate candidate Medea Benjamin, a nonprofit director, who finished second here to incumbent Dianne Feinstein with roughly 20 percent of the vote.

In the Congressional race, Green candidate Justo Moscoso finished third (14 percent) here for the seat retained by Lynn Woolsey. However, in San Geronimo Valley precincts, the Valley native son got 20 percent of the ballots.

Finally, roughly five out of six West Marin voters favored state Proposition 36 to decriminalize drugs. Sure, support was heaviest in Bolinas, where 12 out of 13 voters backed it.

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