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Lots of L.A. County Ballots Remain Unprocessed, Transit Tax Still Lags

By Zach Behrens
November 20, 2012
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A Metro Purple Line Subway Train. | Photo:plattypus1/Flickr/Creative Commons License

County officials still have 215,991 ballots to process, it was announced today in their bi-weekly update. The L.A. County Recorder-Registrar/County Clerk's office has through early December to finalize processing votes.

Today's update gave Measure J, the proposal to extend an already existing sales tax dedicated to transit funding, another small percent increase -- from 65.06 to 65.33 percent. The tax, imposed by L.A. County voters in 2008, is scheduled to expire in 2039; Measure J would extend it another 30 years to speed up transit infrastructure projects and needs a two-thirds vote -- 66.67 percent -- to pass.

County Clerk Dean Logan has deemed it a "close call," but Metro officials, who are stewards of the special tax money, announced that it lost early on.

"It's possible but unlikely due to two issues," explained Metro blogger Steve Hymon today. The first issue is that although over nearly 216,000 unprocessed ballots remain, not all voters may have voted on Measure J, which was listed last on the ballot. Secondly, Hymon calculated that 75 percent of those remaining ballots would have to be "yes" votes to push the tax over the threshold.

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