election

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The El Dorado County Elections department released another count of ballots from Tuesday's primary election on Friday afternoon.

Since election night, 21,446 more ballots have been counted in the county and those results were released at 4:40 p.m. Elections officials say there are just about 1,000 left to count. These late numbers come from ballots received in the mail and left in the area drop boxes near election day. It is unknown the location where the remaining 1,000 ballots are from.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - El Dorado County voters have historically been a mail-in ballot voter, with about 80 percent of those registered putting their ballot in the mail.

So far, over 34,000 ballots have been received by the El Dorado County Elections Office and tabulated. This is about 35 percent of the 124,353 registered and eligible to cast their vote in this primary election.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - With three candidates dropping out of the presidential race just before Super Tuesday, many wonder what happens to their vote if it were for Styer, Buttigieg or Klobuchar.

If a ballot was mailed in and counted, whomever one voted for must remain the same.

It is time for Tahoe to have a new representative in Congress. Tom McClintock has represented our region in congress since 2009. During that time he has not promoted our interests.

1. He never moved into our district. He continues to live in a gated community in Elk Grove. Is our district not nice enough for him to live in? After all, we are paying his salary.

2. He has not had a town hall in the Lake Tahoe District during the past 4 years.

3. His votes are not supportive of our local needs. His votes that do not represent our community are represented by the following votes:

With the March primaries just weeks away, voters will be considering not only their choices on the ballot but will also need to consider how they will cast their votes in South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County.

With poor voter turnout, especially in South Lake Tahoe, and more registered voters choosing to vote by mail, the polling places set up on election days were not frequently used.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – Voters who have been mailed a postcard from the
El Dorado County Registrar of Voters Bill O’Neill indicating they are a "No Party Preference" may have to re-register.

“We are confident our mailing list of NPP voters is accurate, however, some voters may have had their party preference unknowingly changed as a result of automatic voter registration through the California Department of Motor Vehicles,” O’Neill said.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Ever since the South Lake Tahoe became an incorporated city on November 30, 1965, there have been five elected councilmembers. Annually those elected members vote for one of them to hold the position of mayor for a one-year term.

That has now changed.

On Tuesday the South Lake Tahoe City Council unanimously approved the proposal to have mayor terms of nine months "so they can all get a chance in their four-year term."

Please join us for an evening Saluting the Holy Land of Israel with Gil Hoffman

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Vacation Home Rentals (VHR) in South Lake Tahoe continue to be the hot topic, even months after a measure to ban most of them in the city limits narrowly passed in the November 2018 election. Voters approved Measure T by 58 votes.

The subject has created a big divide in the community and a decision by the South Lake Tahoe City Council Tuesday will not lessen that division though their intent is now clear.

SnowGlobe remains a popular and divisive event in South Lake Tahoe. It brings thousands of visitors during our busiest holiday and drives room rates through the ceiling. It also is now proven to violate El Dorado County noise regulations which the County refuses to enforce. It violates the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan noise regulations which the TRPA refuses to enforce. It violates the requirements of the Temporary Activity Permit which both the City and TRPA are working to revise.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - When the City formed in 1965 it was incorporated as a general law city for the purpose of having more local control over public services such as police, fire, and snow removal.

Now there is discussion about changing to a charter city. During their March 5 meeting, Councilmember Cody Bass asked that this subject come forward at a future meeting and Councilmembers Jason Collin and Devin Middlebrook said they were interested in learning more about what the differences are between the two, and what it would mean to South Lake Tahoe to switch.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. - The public is invited to attend a meeting of the El Dorado County ad hoc cannabis committee on Monday, June 3 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Placerville.

They will discuss the rough draft ordinances for commercial cannabis manufacturing, nurseries, and test laboratories. A presentation by County Staff will also be made. The El Dorado County ad hoc cannabis committee members are District V Supervisor Sue Novasel, and District I Supervisor John Hidahl.

No candidate for District 1 Senate received more than 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, forcing a runoff election in June between the two candidates with the most votes.

After 100 percent of the precincts were counted, the top two are Republican Assemblyman Brian Dahle and Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley. It is unknown how many provisional and mail-in ballots remain to be counted.

Many people in our State Senate district have received a mailer that encourages Republicans to vote for Brian Dahle and for Democrats to vote for Steve Baird.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Fire Chief Jeff Meston is retiring from South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) on February 28, five years and five months after he came out of retirement to head up the department.

On Friday, February 1, Meston submitted his resignation to the City.

"When I was hired by CM (City Manager) Kerry I promised to spend between 3-5 years with the City Fire Department and bring them as far as I could to be a “world class” fire department," Meston said in his resignation letter.

He feels he's accomplished what he set out to do.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City and the South Lake Tahoe Property Owner's Group have reached an agreement on the enforcement of Measure T, a voter-initiated ballot measure to remove over 1,300 vacation home rentals from neighborhoods by the year 2021.

There were two major portions of the measure though that were to go into effect immediately, a change to occupancy rates and a halt to the issuing of new permits for the vacation accommodations made popular by websites like Airbnb.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Even though there is no ban on vacation rentals until 2021 in South Lake Tahoe, a component to control occupancy was to be in effect this month but a judge today put a halt to that.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There will be a special City Council meeting on Monday, December 10 at 5:00 p.m.

The councilmembers will officially accept the November 6 election results. Per Elections Code the City Clerk must certify the results of the election to the City Council.

For South Lake Tahoe this means certifying the fact that three councilmembers, Cody Bass, Devin Middlebrook, and Tamara Wallace, won the election along with Sue Blankenship as city clerk, Dave Olivo as city treasurer, and Measure T passed.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It was well below freezing but spirits warmed the air as car after car honked at the dozens of Barton Health nurses, both current and retired, picketing on both sides of Highway 50 on 3rd Street in South Lake Tahoe.

"We've had amazing support from the community," said emergency room nurse Ronnie Navarro, an 11-year employee of the hospital. That community included other local unions including the police and fire departments.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The final count of ballots for the November 6th election might be done as soon as Friday, November 30, 2018 though its not guaranteed. With just 47 votes separating the "yes" and the "no" votes on Measure T in South Lake Tahoe, many are anxiously awaiting the results. El Dorado County has 30 days from the election to send the certified election results to the State of California.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Measure T, the South Lake Tahoe ballot measure that proposed a ban on all vacation rentals outside of the tourist core area starting in 2021 is a bit closer to passing.

In the second incremental release of votes counter after Tuesday, November 6, the Yes on T vote is at 3265, with No on T counts at 3207 - less than one percent difference. 267 ballots were tallied in this last release for Measure T.

The gap between the yes and no votes on Measure T in South Lake Tahoe got much smaller, with the measure now passing by just 25 votes. The South Lake Tahoe City Council and El Dorado County Supervisor results remain the same.

El Dorado County had over 24,000 votes to count after election day, and they have now counted 16,919 of them. 1,655 of those were from the City of South Lake Tahoe and 2,907 for the Area 5 Supervisor district.

As a recap, here are the results on election night: http://southtahoenow.com/story/11/08/2018/over-24000-ballots-yet-be-counted-el-dorado-county

The following is a letter from Duane Wallace, past president of the South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce to the Tahoe Transportation District Board. He outlines the concerns their Chamber has expressed about the US 50 South Shore Community
Revitalization Project (Loop Road) EIR process and content.

"It is on the fastest track I've ever seen," he said of the Loop Road project.

Dear Chair Teshara and Commission Members,

For days the employees of the El Dorado County elections department have been busy processing thousands of mail-in ballots for the November 6 election.

On election day the Placerville office was full of energy and activity as stacks of ballots were processed, lines of voters were out the door and a non-stop line of cars waited to drop off their ballot outside the office.

"The turnout is just fantastic," El Dorado County Recorder-Clerk William Schultz told South Tahoe Now.