47,985 ballots were cast from Stanislaus County voters toward the results of June 5th Primary Election, with a voter turnout of 21.76 percent. The two major parties came out equally while 20,946 Democrats and 21,048 Republicans voted.
The presidential candidates were already decided nationally before Stanislaus County voters cast their ballots but nonetheless, ballots were cast.
Democrat Presidential Nominee and Incumbent Barack Obama (D) received 16,676 (89.56%) votes while 1,944 (10.44%) votes went toward a write-in. Statewide, Obama received 1,561,290 votes (100%).
Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney received 15,371 (75.89%) votes while his nearest Primary challengers Ron Paul received 2,032 (10.03) votes and Rick Santorum received 1,396 (6.89) votes. Statewide, Romney received 1,151,275 votes (79.6%), Paul garnered 147,900 votes (10.2%), and Santorum came in third with 75,808 votes (5.2%).
Stanislaus County voters contributed 18,098 (40.82%) votes toward Democrat Dianne Feinstein’s commanding Primary victory for the U.S. Senator General Election. With 100% of precincts now reporting, Feinstein (D) has received 1,801,422 votes (49.3%) while the second of two top candidates looks to be Elizabeth Emken (R) with 454,937 votes (12.5%). California has a new election process that allows all candidates, no matter what party affiliation, to run against each other with the top two candidates of the Primary Election advancing to the General Election in November.
The election for the U.S. Representative 10th Congressional District included a newly drawn district while also incorporating a new election process that allows the top two candidates no matter what party to advance to the November Election.
In Stanislaus County, including Turlock, 22,202 voters (47.57%) cast their ballot for current Congressman Jeff Denham (R) while the nearest competitor, Jose Hernandez (D), received 12,270 votes (26.29%). Chad Condit (I) came in third place with 8,825 votes (18.91%) despite not being a member of either of the two major parties.
The 10th Congressional District also includes San Joaquin County areas such as Escalon, Ripon, Manteca, and Tracy. That county reports that 9,524 votes (49.69%) were cast for Congressman Jeff Denham (R) while 6,616 votes (34.52%) were cast for the challenger Jose Hernandez (D). Chad Condit (I) was not as much of a factor in the election results as he was in Stanislaus County as he only received 1,046 votes (5.46%) in San Joaquin County.
Denham (R) and Hernandez (D) advance from the Primary Election toward the November Election.
With newly drawn district lines for the State Assembly 12th District, Turlock had its first opportunity to vote for Kristin Olsen (R) who is the current Assemblywoman for the 25th District (which does not include Turlock).
Kristin Olsen (R) received 19,486 votes (62.88%) in Stanislaus County while her lone challenger Christopher Mateo received 11,392 votes (36.76%).
In San Joaquin County, Olsen received 11,611 votes (65%) and Mateo garnered 6,187 votes (34.63%).
Both will continue their race for the November Election as they were the only two Primary Election candidates.
There were three Stanislaus County Supervisor seats up for election during the June 5th Primary but only one of three incumbents was contested.
Incumbent District 1 Supervisor Bill O’Brien and Incumbent District 2 Supervisor (Turlock’s representative) Vito Chiesa both ran uncontested and were re-elected.
Incumbent District 5 Supervisor Jim De Martini was challenged for his position on the Board but was victorious while receiving 3,666 votes (61.10%) while challenger Daniel Padilla received 2,316 votes (38.60%).
Ballot Measures
Proposition 28, the ballot measure proposing to reduce the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years, garnered overwhelming support by Stanislaus County and statewide voters alike.
30,072 Stanislaus County votes (64.63%) were cast in favor of the reduced term limitation while 2,319,918 statewide votes (61.4%) came in supporting the ballot measure.
Proposition 29 asked California voters if they wanted to impose an additional $1.00 per pack tax on cigarettes and an equivalent tax increase on other tobacco products. The revenues would be used to fund research for cancer and tobacco related diseases.
As of 4:43am on June 6th, the statewide results were that 1,894,871 voters (49.2%) supported the measure while 1,958,047 (50.8%) voters did not support the additional tax on tobacco products.
20,741 (43.88%) Stanislaus County voters said that they would support the tobacco tax while 26,530 (56.12%) voted against the proposal.
Measure T, the effort to continue the 1/8 cent library sales tax, was Turlock and Stanislaus County’s sole specific ballot measure. Supporters of Measure T campaigned that without this continuation of sales tax the library system in Stanislaus County would be devastated.
Voters agreed with the importance as 38,291 ballots (81.60%) favored the library sales tax while only 8,637 (18.40%) disagreed with the proposition. With the unofficial report of 81.6% approval, the necessary 66.67% needed to pass the proposal has been met.
