Marin Goes Big for Obama, Bucks Opposition to Failed Props 34, 37

It’s hard to call receiving nearly 74 percent of the vote a dip in support.

But while Marin County came out big again for President Barack Obama in the 2012 Election, it did so at a lower clip than in 2008. Obama has received 62,929 of the 85,516 votes counted in Marin so far, good for 73.9 percent of the presidential vote. Marin County Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold said an have yet to be counted.

Marin’s support for Obama dipped a bit from 2008, when he garnered 109,320 votes in Marin, or nearly 78 percent of the total votes cast for the presidential race.

Once the additional ballots are counted (next update Friday), Ginnold said she expected the 2012 turnout to be around 85 percent, a drop-off from the excitement-fueled 90.8 percent turnout of 2008.

While Marin backed the winner in the presidential race, it gave resounding support to a pair of propositions that were soundly defeated across California.

Prop. 34, which sought to replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole, create a $100 million fund to investigate rape and murder cases and require inmates to work and pay restitution to victims or their families, was voted down by a margin of 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent.

In Marin, however, where all male Death Row inmates in California are housed at San Quentin State Prison, the proposition had overwhelming support, with 68 percent of the 85, 516 votes cast in favor.

That same dynamic played out for Proposition 37, which sought to require food manufacturers to label genetically modified food (or GMOs - genetically modified organisms). The measure was defeated 53 percent to 47 percent, but had a robust 62 percent support in Marin.

A number of other state propositions received voter backing in Marin and statewide, including Prop 30, the tax hike to support public schools, as well as Prop 39, which closed a $1 billion corporate tax loophole, reversing an incentive created in 2009 for out-of-state corporations to not build facilities or hire employees in California. 

So what do you think? Did Marin get it right on most of the major races and ballot measures? Why didn’t the state follow Marin’s lead on issues like Props 34 and 37? Tell us in the Comments.