Voter Confusion, High Turnout Affect Races

San Franciscans tried a novel voting method with a mixture of ease and confusion Tuesday as voters across California weighed in on local measures that touched on prostitution, marijuana, religious symbols and cows.

Delays felt statewide from heavy turnout were compounded somewhat in San Francisco by “ranked choice voting” -- also known as “instant runoff voting” -- which allowed voters to select first-, second- and third-choice candidates.

San Francisco, which is using the voting system to elect county supervisors, is the first U.S. city to use the method since an aborted experiment in Michigan three decades ago.

Though many voters said they had researched their top three picks, others learned of the system only when voting machines that process marked paper ballots blinked and beeped to alert them to possible errors.

The machines sounded every time a voter failed to mark all three choices, marked the same candidate in more than one column or marked multiple candidates in any column. They then had the option of revoting.

Peter Arvantely, 35, came prepared.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Arvantely said of the system, which let him rank three of the 22 candidates running to replace outgoing Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez. “It has allowed candidates to work together and collaborate.”

But others were confused.

“I didn’t understand it, so I just voted for the same person three times,” said Kenneth Cole Jr., 29, who first learned of the new method when the machine issued an error message.

The system works like this: Voters rank their top three candidates in order of preference. If no one wins 50% of the votes when first choices are tallied, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. The second choice of those voters is then added to the remaining candidates’ tallies. The process continues until a winner emerges.

Proponents say the method eliminates costly runoffs, gives voters more say and encourages participation from minor-party candidates. But voters who make just one choice -- or pick the same candidate three times -- are disadvantaged, since they are silenced if that candidate is eliminated. Reports from some heavily Chinese precincts Tuesday indicated that many voters were doing just that to back Chinese American candidates.

Despite some confusion, city elections officials said Tuesday that voting went smoothly. The secretary of state’s office sent half a dozen monitors to San Francisco to observe the voting. Spokesman Marc Carrel said they reported minor delays because of confusion and voting mistakes.

Incumbents were making a strong showing in six of the seven board races. It could be days before a winner is declared in the only wide open race -- to replace Green Party member Gonzalez. Fellow Green and longtime activist Ross Mirkarimi was firmly ahead of tenant organizer Robert Haaland, who have would become the country’s first openly transgender supervisor.

Voters’ second- and third-choice selections won’t be tallied until today, and the process of elimination and recount will be repeated as absentee and provisional ballots are processed.

Also in San Francisco, voters were favoring a $200-million affordable housing bond -- $90 million of which would create housing with supportive services, such as counseling, for the homeless.

Voters appeared to be rejecting a proposition that would allow noncitizens to cast ballots in school board elections. The controversial measure -- which would be first in the state but not the nation -- will likely face legal challenges. A measure to retain the name of Candlestick Park for the stadium that plays host to the San Francisco 49ers was doing well, even though the team recently sold the naming rights to Monster Cable Products Inc.

In Berkeley, a measure that would make prostitution its Police Department’s lowest priority and require city officials to lobby the state for decriminalization appeared to be struggling. Another measure that would make it easier to establish a place to grow and dispense medical marijuana was faring better.

Oakland voters also were deciding whether to send a message on the war on drugs with a measure that would decriminalize the adult recreational use of marijuana and downgrade offenses such as possession, sale and cultivation.

A campaign to outlaw genetically engineered crops and livestock in four California counties, meanwhile, appeared headed toward defeat. Voters in Butte County -- nestled in the state’s rice-growing region -- were rejecting a bid that would have prohibited genetically modified crops. So was the wine-growing region of San Luis Obispo County.

Voters in Marin County, a liberal bastion that long ago shed its agrarian ties, were approving the ban by a wide margin. In Humboldt County, supporters of a bioengineering ban conceded in the final weeks of the campaign that the measure had a constitutional flaw -- it authorized the jailing of alleged violators without a jury trial. Backers urged voters to reject it, and they appeared to be doing so.

In the Kern County town of Wasco, early returns showed voters backing an advisory measure to keep giant dairies at least 10 miles from town, though supervisors seem poised to approve 10 dairies that would add few jobs but bring 100,000 cows -- and lots of manure -- to town.

In San Diego, Mayor Dick Murphy sought a second term but was trailing in early returns against fellow Republican and county Supervisor Ron Roberts. Apparently mounting a surprisingly strong write-in campaign was Councilwoman Donna Frye.

But it was hard to determine how many write-in votes went to Frye, versus other write-ins.

San Diegans also voted -- again -- on the future of the 43-foot cross on Mt. Soledad. The city has been embroiled in 15 years of litigation with the American Civil Liberties Union over a cross on public land.

The measure, which was losing, would allow the city to sell the land to the highest bidder. An earlier sale -- approved by voters -- was struck down by the courts as rigged in favor of pro-cross bidders.

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Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Tony Perry and special correspondent Robert Hollis contributed to this report.