Ventura County Outvotes Rest of U.S. in Backing Bush

Ventura County voters showed their support for Republican George Bush Tuesday by voting for him at a rate 7% higher than the average rate nationally.

Nationally, Bush defeated Democrat Michael S. Dukakis 54% to 46%. In Ventura, his margin was 61.3% to 37.1%. With 71.2% of Ventura County’s registered voters going to the polls, Bush collected 138,691 votes to Dukakis’ 84,068.

Tuesday’s voter turnout was lower than in the 1984 presidential election, when 77.5% of registered voters cast ballots.

Ventura County voters also supported the reelection of Sen. Pete Wilson (R-San Diego) by a larger margin than did the rest of California. Wilson received 62.3% to Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy’s 34.3%. Statewide, Wilson won by a 54%-to-46% vote.

Support for Proposition 95, which imposes fines on those who violate health, safety and building codes and channels the money to homeless groups, was rejected in Ventura County and the rest of the state. The measure was rejected in Ventura County by 54.89% to 45.2%.

Ventura County voters also signaled their support for a tax hike on cigarette and tobacco by approving Proposition 99--which will raise the tax from 10 cents to 35 cents to pay for medical research and environmental protection--by a 58.8% to 41.2% vote. That percentage was a scant 1% higher than the state average.

By a 3% lower vote than in the rest of California, Ventura County rejected Proposition 102, which called for mandatory reporting of sexual contacts by those infected with the AIDS virus. Ventura County voted 61% to 39% against Proposition 102.

Ventura County voted to rejected all five auto insurance measures, including Proposition 103, the Ralph Nader consumer initiative that reduces insurance prices across the board by 20% or more.

County voters defeated Proposition 103 by 9 percentage points. But it triumphed in statewide returns, with California voters approving it 51.1% to 48.9%.