A majority of North County voters supported a parcel tax to upgrade parks and facilities in the area. But because Measure V is a specific tax, having a simple majority in favor is not enough, which means it is headed to defeat in the latest election results released Nov. 10.
According to the count, 60 percent of voters (2,107) said yes to North County Public Recreation District’s measure, below the two-thirds threshold of 66.67 percent.
Measure V would add an $82 parcel tax annually per property within the district’s boundaries, which includes Castroville, Elkhorn, Moss Landing, Oak Hills and other North County communities. It could raise $300,000 per year for the district to be used to upgrade the North County Recreation Center and parks.
With relatively few registered voters in the district—7,040, according to the Monterey County Elections Office—and with only a 51-percent turnout reported so far, it would not take many more votes to bump up the percentage. Yet, the number of ballots remaining to be processed are dwindling: Yhe elections office estimates there are roughly 1,600 more to be processed. That includes vote-by-mail ballots that were postmarked by Election Day (Nov. 3) that are received by Tuesday, Nov. 10, as well as roughly 1,500 provisional ballots. That’s in addition to another 1,150 with missing or mismatched signatures that voters have an opportunity to correct.
It is unknown how many of those ballots are from North County voters.