Absentee Ballots Helped O.C. Tower Project Win Convincingly

Mike Harrah, the Santa Ana developer who owns a large chunk of the city’s downtown, won Tuesday’s contentious referendum election to build Orange County’s tallest building with an expensive campaign aimed at absentee voters.

More than 67% of ballots cast were from absentee voters, reflecting a continuing trend in how people vote.

While Harrah would have won the election without the absentee ballot push -- though with just a 74-vote edge -- the tactic to get voters to mail in ballots helped him win in convincing style.

The final tally -- 8,859 people voted for the tower, and 6,827 voted against it -- shows that 56.5% of voters agreed with Harrah’s plan to build a 37-story office tower at 10th Street and Broadway, an $86-million project that supporters believe will become a signature building.

Harrah’s election campaign in support of One Broadway Plaza cost him nearly $370,000. Opponents of the office tower, who worry that the project will clog city streets with traffic, spent $45,000.

The hub of the opposition to Measure A came from middle-class, mostly white residents of Santa Ana who moved to the city because of its older neighborhoods and sleepy downtown.

Opponents collected more than 14,000 signatures to put the building up for a citywide vote after the Santa Ana City Council approved it in July.

Harrah turned to experts for help. He enlisted the Newport Beach political consultants who helped Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and ran the campaign to defeat a proposed commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine base.

“I had to protect my position,” Harrah said. “I had spent nine years planning this and $23 million” on land acquisition, environment impact studies and attorneys.

Later, Harrah turned to consultant Dennis DeSno, who has worked with many of Santa Ana’s council members in their election bids. He also brought in NSON Opinion Research of Salt Lake City, Utah, which conducted focus groups to determine voter interest. But from the get-go, Harrah said, the focus was on absentee voters.

DeSno “said on the very first day this would be won through absentee ballots. There was only one thing on the ballot. Most people won’t go to the polls, he said. If we made it easy, they would,” Harrah said.

In the end, absentee ballots showed 59% were for the tower, and 41% were opposed. The election attracted 17% of registered voters in Santa Ana.

Some said the reliance on absentee voters was not unusual, noting elections such as the 2003 victory of Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell, in which two-thirds of voters used absentee ballots.

Alan Saltzstein, Cal State Fullerton political science professor, said the number of absentee voters in the special election was “awfully high,” but conceded that mail-in ballots were becoming more popular.

Proponents of ballot measures often bank on absentee voters, said UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca. “Turnout in a special election can be very low,” he said. “To literally put a ballot into the hands of a voter becomes an important tactic.”

Opponents said they did not promote absentee voting heavily and realized they had lost voters when they went door-to-door and found that some residents had already cast ballots.

Harrah “brought in the heavy guns, the big names. We did very well considering,” said Jeff Dickman, an opponent of the office tower. “People read the literature and had no other material from us. When you don’t have money, you can’t get the message out.”

Harrah launched his campaign in English, Spanish and Vietnamese and included brochures with the absentee ballot applications. Volunteers made door-to-door visits. Mayor Miguel A. Pulido, council members Jose Solorio and Claudia Alvarez, bookstore owner and community activist Rueben Martinez, attorney and community activist Alfredo Amezcua, and Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove), whose district includes part of Santa Ana, appeared in radio and television ads promoting the project.

When the election results are made official April 28, Harrah said he will start signing up tenants. Without the contracts, Harrah can’t build the tower under an agreement with the city.

He will also need to add traffic lanes and complete other traffic improvements before construction begins.

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Measure A results

Absentee ballots cast in the One Broadway Plaza special election accounted for two-thirds of the vote.

Vote breakdown

YES: 8,859

Absentee ballots: 6,280

Precinct ballots: 2,579

NO: 6,827

Absentee ballots: 4,322

Precinct ballots: 2,505

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Source: Orange County registrar of voters. Graphics reporting by Jennifer Delson