Half-Cent Sales Tax Hike Wins Narrow Approval

Los Angeles County voters narrowly approved Proposition C, a measure hiking sales taxes by a half-cent to develop a five-county rail transit system, build exclusive bus ways and widen freeways, nearly final election returns disclosed Thursday.

The county registrar-recorder’s office said that with only about 1,000 to 2,000 absentee ballots still to be counted, Proposition C had received 847,838 yes votes to 833,336 no votes, a 14,502-vote margin.

The measure, along with a similar sales-tax proposition approved in Orange County, is expected to raise $550 million a year to fight traffic congestion with improved transit systems.

In other election results, a tally of the last 1,000 absentee ballots in Santa Monica confirmed that tenant rights candidate Kelly Olsen narrowly beat out incumbent Councilwoman Christine Reed for the third contested seat on the Santa Monica City Council.

And Proposition W, a tenant-backed measure that would have allowed modest rent increases on voluntarily vacated apartments, was defeated. The final unofficial numbers showed that the measure lost by 266 votes.

On the morning after the election, before the absentee votes were counted, Olsen led Reed by 827 votes. On Wednesday, about 1,500 absentee ballots were counted, narrowing the gap to 519. The final tally showed Olsen edging out Reed by 374 votes.

In the Santa Monica-Malibu school board race, nearly final returns reported by the county showed Brenda Gottfried the winner of the last open seat. Gottfried and Joanne Leavitt had been locked in a close race for fourth place in the race, but Gottfried was ahead by 300 votes. Officials estimated that fewer than 100 absentee ballots remained to be counted.