We published this story last October and thought some might find it useful, with the recent decision of the Joint Public Safety
Committee to request a $4.2 million levy be placed on the May ballot. If
the request is approved by the Klamath County Commissioners, this levy
will be larger than those presented to the voters in the past, all of which were
rejected.

Klamath
County voters have been presented with several measures related to public
safety since 2008. The following
summarizes those measures and the outcome of those votes.

Going back to
May of 2008, voters within the city of Klamath Falls have been presented with 7
ballot measures related to public safety. Six of those were the same public
safety measures presented to all of the voters in the county, and the seventh
was the general obligation bond for the new police station. Voters within the
suburban area voted on 6 public safety measures, as did some voters in those rural
precincts served by Fire District #1. Voters living in rural precincts not
served by Fire District #1 voted on 5 public safety measures.

When
measures are on the ballot voters can either respond with “YES” or “NO” or they
can ignore the question altogether. Once all the votes are counted, the
response that has one more vote than the other, decides the outcome of the measure.
The final tally of votes determines the outcome of the measures, but it doesn’t
tell us how individual city wards or individual precincts voted. Here at Klamath Online, we felt this
information was important in the planning of future measures, in part, because of the likelihood the Joint Public
Safety Committee will be placing a measure of some kind on the May 2012 ballot.

Klamath
County has a total of 42 voting precincts, 14 of which are within the city of
Klamath Falls and are split (though not evenly) among the 5 city wards. We took
the remaining 28 precincts and logically divided them equally among the suburban
and the rural areas of the county. We then created spreadsheets for each of the
recognizable sections of our community (Klamath Falls, Suburban area, and rural
area), and placed the appropriate 14 precincts in the spreadsheets for each
section. We then transferred the votes from each precinct, for every public
safety related ballot measure going back to May of 2008, onto the appropriate spreadsheets.
Links to each of the spreadsheets are available at the end of this article.

The
following, in chronological order, is a list of the public safety related
ballot measures, and a summary of what we discovered in each section of the
community.

May of 2008
– 2 public safety related measures, one countywide and one Klamath Falls city
voters only.

Registered
Voters = 33.934

Ballots Cast
= 20,077

Voter Turnout =59.16%

City of
Klamath Falls (only), bond levy to construct a new police station – $4 million
Obligation bond. – PASSED

YES – 50.29%
VOTES = 2,413

NO – 49.71%
VOTES –=2,385

Klamath Falls – Though the bond passed
by 28 votes, 8 out of 14 precincts voted against the bond. At the ward level, wards
1 and 5 voted against the bond.

911 Tax levy – Would increase property taxes
by .47/$1,000.00 –FAILED

YES = 47.71%
VOTES – 9,112

NO= 52.29%
VOTES – 9,987

Klamath Falls – Measure passed, YES- 2435
(50.77%) to NO- 2361 (49.23%). The precincts were evenly split with 7 voting
for and 7 voting against. Wards 3 and 5 voted against the measure.

Suburban area – Measure failed,
NO-3980(51.57%) to YES- 3738 (48.43%). 8 of 14 precincts voted against the measure.

Rural area – Measure failed, NO-3646(55.37%)
to YES-2939(44.63%). 11 of 14 precincts voted against the measure.

November of
2008- There were 3 countywide public safety related measures on the ballot;
Fire District #1 is nearly countywide.

Registered
Voters = 35,745

Ballots Cast
= 29,647

Voter Turnout= 82.94%

Measure 62 –
Should lottery proceeds to be used to pay for public safety? –FAILED

YES = 47.30%
VOTES – 13,247

NO= 52.70
VOTES – 14,762

Klamath Falls – Measure failed,
NO-4034(56.38%) to YES-3121(43.62%). 12 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure. All 5 Wards voted against the measure.

Suburban area-Measure failed,
NO-5674(51.56%) to YES-5330(48.44%). 9 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

Rural area-Measure failed, NO-5054(51.31%)
to YES-4796(48.69%). 8 of 14 precincts voted against the measure.

Local
Measure 18-70 – Tax levy for 911 operations – .18/$1,000- lowered from .47 on
May ballot- FAILED

YES= 40.53%
VOTES – 11,312

NO= 59.47%
VOTES – 16,599

Klamath Falls-Measure failed,
NO-4087(57.55%) to YES-3015(42.45%). 13 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure. All 5 Wards voted against the measure.

Suburban area-Measure failed,
NO-6378(57.92%) to YES-4634(42.08%). All 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

Rural area – Measure failed,
NO-6134(62.62%) to YES-3662(37.38%). 13 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

Local Measure
18-71 – Tax levy to increase tax rate for Fire District #1 – .34/$1,000-FAILED

YES = 37.52%
VOTES – 7,035

NO= 62.48%
VOTES – 11,716

Klamath Falls-Measure failed, NO-4342(61.64%)
to YES-2702(38.36%). All 14 precincts and All 5 Wards voted against the
measure.

Suburban area-Measure failed,
NO-5924(62.47%) to YES-3559(37.53%). All 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

Rural area-Measure failed,
NO-1450(65.20%) to YES-774(34.80%). Only 5 of the 14 rural precincts voted on
this measure. Four voted against it, and the fifth one tied 5 votes YES to 5 votes
NO.

May of 2010-
One countywide public safety measure on the ballot.

Registered
Voters= 33.056

Ballots Cast=
16,858

Voter Turnout=51%

Local
measure 18-79 tax levy for Sheriff Operations – .59/$1,000-FAILED

YES= 41.44%
VOTES – 6,685

NO= 58.56% VOTES
– 9,446

Klamath Falls- Measure failed,
NO-2293(57.95%) to YES-1664(42.05%). All 14 precincts and 5 Wards voted against
the measure.

Suburban area-Measure failed,
NO-3602(54.12%) to YES-3053(45.88%). 12 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

Rural area-Measure failed,
NO-3551(64.34%) to YES-1968(35.66%). All 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

May of 2011-
One countywide public safety measure on the ballot.

Registered
Voters= 33,654

Ballots Cast=
16,226

Voter
Turnout= 48.21%

Local
measure 18-85 Jail only operations tax levy – .25/$1,000-FAILED

YES= 49.15
VOTES – 7,895

NO= 50.85
VOTES – 8,168

Klamath Falls-Measure passed,
YES-2282(56.70%) to NO-1743(43.30%). 5 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure. All 5 Wards voted in favor of the measure.

Suburban area-Measure passed,
YES-3508(53.70%) to NO-3024(46.30%). Precinct 22 was the only precinct (out of
14) to vote against the measure.

Rural area-Measure failed,
NO-3463(61.73%) to YES-2130(38.27%). 13 of 14 precincts voted against the
measure.

In summary:

Klamath Falls city voters have voted NO,
on 4 out of 7 recent public safety related measures. CLICK HERE TO VIEW
SPREADSHEET

South Suburban voters have voted NO on 5
out of 6 recent public safety related measures. CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPREADSHEET

Rural voters have voted NO on 6 out of 6 recent public safety related
measures. CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPREADSHEET

In a future article, we will provide you with
our analysis of this data. We will also discuss our findings regarding
endorsements of measures, and whether or not Klamath County voters are swayed
by those endorsements.

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