Mendocino's ballot measure fails

<p>A Mendocino County ballot measure that would have allowed for commercial development of the former Masonite plant outside Ukiah failed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in the polls on Tuesday.</p><p>Final results from the Tuesday election give Measure A 7,029 votes, or 38 percent of the votes cast, the county elections office said.</p><p>The “no” votes came in at 11,603, or 62 percent, with all 247 precincts reporting, officials said.</p><p>It was not clear early Wednesday how many outstanding mail-in ballots might still need to be counted or whether there were enough to alter the outcome.</p><p>Measure A proponents conceded after early results were released on Tuesday that it appeared the proposal had been defeated, however, despite the nearly $900,000 in election spending they’ve reported so far.</p><p>“It’s a pretty insurmountable number,” Measure A spokesman Brian Sobel, of Petaluma, said Tuesday. “We certainly are extremely disappointed with that result.”</p><p>In Lakeport, a measure to reinstate the sales of fireworks appeared victorious with 59 percent of the vote, according to the Lake County elections office.</p><p>A total 514 people voted to overturn a City Council decision banning fireworks sales in the city, while 353, or about 48 percent, voted against it.</p>