Once people know who won the election, they often don't care much about the details. There are, however, some interesting numbers to be found in the final Statement of the Vote that each county elections office submits to the Secretary of State in Sacramento. We've plucked a few numbers of note from the Stanislaus County statement:
390 — The number of write-in votes that Republican Ron Paul received in Stanislaus County. He was among eight certified write-in candidates for president on the ballot in California. There's no doubt Paul has a following here; he also is the subject of a number of letters to the editor, and those letters frequently end up most commented upon on modbee.com. The only other write-in candidate to get votes in Stanislaus was Virgil Goode, who received 15 votes. Goode is a former Virginia congressman who was running on the Constitution Party ticket.
67.39 — The percentage of registered voters who cast ballots in Stanislaus County. There are 232,887 voters; 156,935 of them voted.
99.3 — The percentage number of voters who had a preference for president; that means 0.7 percent did not. Those 904 showed up as "under votes" on the final tally. The under votes were much higher for every other race. For example:
4 — The percentage of Stanislaus voters who didn't vote for either Jeff Denham or Jose Hernandez in the 12th Congressional District race.
97.2 — The percentage of Stanislaus County voters who weighed in on Proposition 30. It passed here, with 54 percent in favor. In contrast, only 92 percent of the voters marked "yes" or "no" on Proposition 40, the confusing referendum on state Senate districts. It also passed, by the way.
73.74 — Percentage of eligible voters who actually voted in Oakdale. That was highest among the nine cities and makes sense because Oakdale had three City Council seats at stake. The lowest turnout was in Ceres, where only 60.2 percent of voters marked a ballot. Ceres elects its council and school board members in odd-numbered years, and is represented in the state Senate by Anthony Cannella, whose term isn't up until 2014. In other words, there wasn't as much going on in Ceres.
53 — votes separated the two candidates for mayor in Riverbank. Councilman Richard O'Brien defeated incumbent Virginia Madueño by that narrow margin. What's interesting: 332 Riverbank voters didn't mark their ballot for either candidate.
For anyone who loves numbers, the full, 115-page statement is available at http://is.gd/0jC8LV.
• • • Other numbers of note as we close out the year:
81 — laws are on a list compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures as the most significant new laws around the country, and the California Legislature is responsible for 27 of them, or a third. As the Capitol Alert blog points out, this confirms the view that California legislators are the most active — or most intrusive — generator of new laws.
10,000 — seventh- and eighth-graders in Stanislaus County have learned about the science of agriculture over the past 14 months, thanks to Ag in Motion, the traveling science exhibit sponsored by the National Ag Science Center, based here in Modesto. The 53-foot long mobile classroom is adding a new lab — the chemistry of dairy, looking at the pH of different dairy products.
$50 — will be the price of a new California vintage license plate, replicating the designs issued in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The retro look plates can be ordered for any year model automobile, commercial vehicle, motorcycle or trailer, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. A pre-order form is available at http://is.gd/7qOAld. We expect the Modesto area, which has such an appreciation for classic cars, will like the plates as well.
12 — Stanislaus County's ranking in the state for alcohol-involved collisions based on daily vehicle miles traveled, according to the district attorney's office. It has received a $310,000 grant to fund two deputy district attorney positions to prosecute felony and misdemeanor vehicle manslaughter cases involving drugs or alcohol and other cases involving people who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs — prescription or illegal. In 2011, the DA prosecuted almost 100 cases in which people were injured in alcohol-involved collisions and four in which the victims died.
It's a timely reminder as we head into a weekend that is notorious for heavy partying. Please don't drink and drive — or drive under the influence of any drug that impairs your ability to react quickly.
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