Despite the failure of Tuesday's statewide elections to excite much voter interest, there were the usual legal tangles as the last votes were counted. Or deliberately not counted, as in San Mateo County where the dead sheriff may or may not have won reelection.
Another clouded election result was in Riverside County, where the man who finished second in the contest for coroner and presumably would go into a runoff is not eligible to serve because he pleaded guilty to two felonies just before the election.
Elsewhere, San Francisco proponents of a 20-year campaign to tear down the raised part of the Embarcadero Freeway failed to convince the voters; an Oakland rent control measure lost, and veteran San Diego County Supervisor Paul Eckert was defeated in a startling upset.
Ballots Sealed
The ballots in the San Mateo County sheriff's race between the late Sheriff Brendan Maguire and San Francisco Mint security officer Jim White were sealed Wednesday while the courts sought to straighten out a legal quandary.
Maguire died April 21, leaving White the only live candidate on the ballot. Seven write-in candidates jumped in to oppose White, who once lost a deputy's job in Texas for failing to disclose that he had shot a man.
Several of his opponents urged voters to elect the dead Maguire so that county supervisors could appoint a sheriff until a special election next year. The board got permission from the Legislature to delay the sheriff's election until Aug. 26 so more candidates could enter.
White, however, appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ordered that ballots be cast on Tuesday--then sealed pending a hearing on Friday before the state 1st District Court of Appeal on whether the move to postpone the election was constitutional.
If that body decides it was, the ballots will be discarded and a new election will be held Aug. 26. If the appellate court upholds White's appeal, Tuesday's ballots will be counted. If White received more than 50% of the votes, he will be sheriff. If the late Sheriff Maguire got more than 50%, a sheriff will be appointed pending another election.
If no one received more than 50%, a runoff election will be held in November.
Despite all the publicity the race had, only 47% (the statewide average Tuesday was 40%) of San Mateo County's voters went to the polls. "The sheriff's election did not fire up the populace," observed Marvin Church, county clerk-recorder who had expected a 57% turnout.
