CFAH

As of yesterday, roughly 481,700 people were registered to vote in San Francisco (which is down from 513,400 people in November of 2016); 320,700 mail-in ballots had been issued for today’s election; and 80,600 ballots had been returned.

We’ll run the early results for the real estate related measures, including Regional Measure 3 (Bay Area Traffic Relief Plan), Proposition D (Tax on Commercial Rents to fund housing and homelessness services), and Proposition F (City-funded legal representation for tenants in eviction lawsuits), Proposition G (Parcel Tax for SF Unified School District) and of course, the next Mayor of San Francisco, as soon as they’re released this evening.

If you have already voted, thank you. If you haven’t, the polls are open and will remain so until 8pm.

Comments from Plugged-In Readers

  1. Posted by 101

    We should be like Australia and fine people who do not vote.

    • Posted by Anon2.5

      How would any Republicans ever get elected then?

      • Posted by Anonymous

        By trying to revert us to when only white, land-owning, men could vote…

        • Posted by 101

          Ok, let’s chose Countries that are not “White” but have compulsory voting: Brazil, Peru, Singapore . My point is, people in this Country have become complacent and if you do not exercise your right to vote, you have no right to complain about the system.

  2. Posted by jwb

    What’s the mechanism by which the # of registered voters declines? Out-migrants are automatically disenrolled and in-migrants don’t or can’t enroll?

    • Posted by Notcom

      Apparently there is some effort to coordinate voter databases w/i California tho, how effective it is or what, if anything is done for interstate migration I can’t say.

      The number of voters can decline if eligibles are replaced by non-eligibles (e.g. non-citizens) or new residents simply don’t register…too busy in the office designing apps, or whatever.

      • Posted by Martin

        Shows the importance making registration easy. I actually surprised that even you register when renewing your license and can remain on permanent vote by mail list, that many people drop out.

        • Posted by Notcom

          I’m sure there’ll be an app for it 🙂

  3. Posted by 101

    California has joined the ranks of other States that allows you to register to vote on the same day of the election.

  4. Posted by Tipster

    FYI most commercial leases require the tenant to pay all taxes. So measure D is basically a flat 1.7% rent increase on every business. If a business uses 250 square feet per employee, and is paying $5.50 per square foot, the tax will be a flat tax of $280 per employee per year.

    By contrast, the controversial Seattle head tax would collect $275 per employee, only from businesses grossing more than $20 million in annual revenue, or about three percent of the businesses in the city.

    • Posted by Jwb

      Landlords already charge as much as the market will bear. Taxes that appear to be on tenants come out of the landlord’s end, eventually. I support additional outright rent taxes for both commercial and residential.

    • Posted by Amewsed

      Sold my commercial property back in 2016 in anticipation of some kind of commercial tax. My leases have a provision tenants pay a share of the property taxes. However, the ability of retail tenants to survive taxes with the costs of doing business gets more difficult each year. And if they worry, I worry. The decision I made to cash out was simple.

      • Posted by Dave

        Exactly. This will, if passed, make doing business in SF even more difficult and expensive. It’s already too expensive – a large government agency just announced it’s relocating out of San Francisco to Vancouver because of the high costs here. Good for me as I own investment property there. It’s not only commercial RE investing that is increasingly problematic in SF – residential investments are even more problematic and could take another hit after the November election.

        • Posted by Notcom

          My goodness : a “govt agency” leaving their own country…that IS rejection! Or are they moving to Vancouver WA?

        • Posted by 101

          It is only the National Park Service with ~150 employees. Not the end of the World.

          • Posted by rw

            *Ahem* Vancouver, WA; not BC. NPS is vacating $2mil/yr FiDI office space for free space at an old army base.

        • Posted by SFRealist

          It will get so expensive that no one will come here anymore! 🙂

          • Posted by Sabbie

            Funny you say that. Bay Area Council survey is just out. 46 percent of Bay Area residents surveyed said they want to move out of the area within the next few years. That number is up from 34 percent in 2016 and 40 percent 2017. Number one reason cited is cost of living.

          • Posted by SFRealist

            Thus it has always been. And others will move here to take their place, probably at a higher income level.

          • Posted by Sabbie

            If it were “always” then you wouldn’t see the increase from 34% to 46% and the latest figures showing that the working population in SF is actually shrinking.

        • Posted by Amewsed

          Pass on investing in WA or any other state. There are better opportunities globally and I like liquidity.

  5. Posted by unlivable city

    Wow that seems really low. Like heading for a 25% or less turnout.

    • Posted by no_ vally

      Relatively low, but not in comparison to the June 2014 election with a 13.3% turnout or the November 2013 election with 13.7% (perfect timing for the “Wall on the Waterfront” nimbys to carry the day). Some recent stats below (source data; note “% Turnout” represents mailed ballots rather than returned ballots…that info needs to be sussed out from the rightmost columns)

      Date Votes Cast % of Registered
      11/8/2016 286,219 55.7%
      6/7/2016 159,679 34.1%
      11/3/2015 112,685 25.2%
      11/4/2014 137,550 31.5%
      6/3/2014 57,990 13.3%
      11/5/2013 60,111 13.7%

  6. Posted by Amewsed

    Already voted in May via absentee ballot. Straight line no on any additional taxes until the local and state government can demonstrate fiscal responsibility.

    • Posted by ldr

      that’s been my stand for many years, now I know that’s never gonna happen…

      • Posted by Amewsed

        I had discussions about my conservative voting stance in a highly liberal city and state. It was suggested instead of voting Republican candidates, vote in right leaning Democrats so I don’t throw away my vote.

        On issue based voting, easy enough to do. As for candidates, CA has a decent history of Republican governors so I don’t see it wasting my vote.

  7. Posted by spencer

    need a way to vote online.

    • Posted by sfdragonboy

      Da!!!!

      • Posted by SFMichael

        Was that you’re way of saying that Russian hackers approve?

  8. Posted by rw

    “…if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice…”

  9. Posted by bachman_erlich_overdrive

    What’s the odds making on measure 3 the bridge toll bill? Sounds like a tough sell.

  10. Posted by SocketSite

    UPDATE: The polls are now closed. A tip of our hats to all those who voted, we now have the early results.

Comments are closed.

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