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The first February Primary Election saw record turnout at the polls with some counties reportedly running out of ballots, but not Placer. Jim McCauley, the county’s Clerk-Recorder, reports that the election ran smoothly with more than 70 percent of county’s registered voters expected to cast a ballot either by mail or at the polls. The county is forking over $750,000 for the early primary, which McCauley expects will be reimbursed by the state in the future. “We’re very fortunate in Placer County,” he said of the expected high voter turnout. “People here vote.” Election results for the county, unfortunately, won’t be available as quickly as before. For example, precincts in Placer’s Tahoe area must truck their ballots to Auburn’s election headquarters, rather than submit their tallies electronically.
“We can’t transmit results anymore,” McCauley said. “We’ll be waiting for the ballots (to arrive) from Tahoe.” Early
results, as of 11 p.m. Tuesday night, showed Rocklin’s controversial
Measure H, also known as the Clover Valley proposal, was passing with
52 percent of the vote. Prop. 92, which dealt with term limits, was going down in flames in Placer County, with 56 percent voting no. About 56 percent of Placer residents gave a thumbs-up to Propositions 94 through 97, the new tribal gaming agreements. For
the Democrats, Hillary Clinton (49 percent) was ahead of Barack Obama
(36 percent), while John McCain was walking away with 40 percent the
county’s GOP votes, compared to Mitt Romney’s 32 percent and Mike
Huckabee’s 10 percent. Statewide, the presidential primary results
marched up closely with Placer for each candidate.
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