LOCAL VOTER TURNOUT HIGH FOR TUESDAYS ELECTION

With the national and state ticket, town council members, and tax measures on the ballot, voters turned out in big numbers in Yucca Valley. Managing Editor Tami Roleff said voter turnout was high throughout our Morongo Basin…
Roughly half of registered voters in Yucca Valley rocked the vote in Tuesday’s presidential election. The Registrar of Voters says there are 10,529 Yucca Valley residents who had registered to vote. Using Measure Z, a ballot measure in which you could only vote Yes or No, 5,556 ballots were cast, for about 53 percent of registered voters. (Measure Z is a sales tax measure to reduce sewer assessments for town residents.)
In 2014, fewer than 20 percent of Yucca Valley residents voted in the general election, and 33 percent voted in 2015 for Measure X, which would have permitted medical marijuana dispensaries in town limits.
It’s harder to get numbers of voters for other areas in the Morongo Basin, but by averaging the total number of votes cast in each district by the number of seats to be filled in each district, and then dividing that by the number of registered voters for each district, it appears that 39 percent of Twentynine Palms registered voters voted, 36 percent in Joshua Basin Water District, and 31 percent voted for the school district and health care boards.