Inland county OKs property law

California voters rejected a statewide proposition to restrict the government’s ability to seize private property, but voters in San Bernardino County approved a scaled-down version of the measure Tuesday.

Measure O, which prohibits the county from using eminent domain to take private land and transfer it to a private developer or other entity, passed by a wide margin.

“This isn’t going to impede the county from improving streets and roads in any way,” said Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, who supported the county initiative. “But it’s also not going to allow people’s land to be taken away and given to developers and, frankly, just making them richer.”

Had state Proposition 90 also been approved, the sweeping state initiative on eminent domain would have taken precedence, and significantly increased government compensation to property owners, San Bernardino County officials said.

Instead, the new measure will apply in unincorporated areas of the county. Supervisors were concerned that the state proposition was too broad and would raise the price of land seized by eminent domain, thus limiting growth and revitalization projects.

On election day, voter turnout in the Inland Empire fell a few percentage points short of expectations, with 35% of registered voters in Riverside County casting ballots and 37% of registered voters in San Bernardino County heading to the polls.

But aside from long lines at polls Tuesday evening as voters stopped on the way home from work, and minor glitches with some voting machines, officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties reported no major problems.

San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said voters were allowed to cast ballots as long as they got in line by 8 p.m.

“As is the case whenever you have people show up to something, you have periods where there is no one at the polls and then suddenly 100 people will show up,” Wert said.

At several polling stations in Riverside County, including one in Moreno Valley, some voters waited in line for an hour after the polls officially closed to cast their ballots, said Barbara Dunmore, Riverside County registrar of voters. Poll workers offered paper ballots to voters who didn’t want to wait for a machine.

San Bernardino County experienced a temporary glitch on election night when the county’s website said all precincts had been accounted for, when they were not.

In the 80th Assembly District, which includes eastern Riverside County and all of Imperial County, incumbent Republican Bonnie Garcia eked out a third term, capturing 51% of the vote.

Her opponent, former Democratic Assemblyman Steve Clute, represented her strongest challenge to date in a district dominated by Democratic voters. Democrats viewed the race as one of the state’s few competitive contests and flooded Clute’s campaign with last-minute cash. He lost by 1,135 votes.

Garcia said Wednesday she never doubted she would win and made light of the close finish.

Garcia credited her victory to a strong community base. Imperial County voters picked her by a wide margin, while those in Riverside County gave Clute a slight edge.

Garcia said she would have fared better in Riverside County if Clute hadn’t bombarded voters there with attack ads and mailers after she answered a casual question from La Quinta High School seniors by saying she wouldn’t kick the governor out of her bed.

sara.lin@latimes.com

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com