Hermosa Beach oil vote outcome unchanged by final ballot count

Waiting for ballots to be brought to city hall Tuesday night are Hermosa Beach City Clerk Elaine Doerfling (standing ) and her election staff Jackie Nelsen, Linda Abott, Bunnie Kirsh, Merna Marshall, Claudia Lindwall and Coreene Ybarra. Photo — Waiting for ballots to be brought to city hall on election night, March 3, were Hermosa Beach City Clerk Elaine Doerfling (standing ) and her election staff Jackie Nelsen, Linda Abbott, Bunnie Kirsh, Merna Marshall, Claudia Lindwall and Coreene Ybarra. Photo

	Election Night Vote March 3, 2015	Percent	Final Vote Count March 26, 2015	Percent
Yes	1,016	21.10%	1,539	20.50%
No	3,799	78.90%	5,968	79.50%
Votes cast	4,815		7,507
Registered voters			13,898
Voter turnout			54.01%

Hermosa Beach City Clerk Elaine Doerfling released the final results of the Measure O vote tonight at a special meeting of the city council. The March 3 ballot measure, if approved, would have lifted the city’s ban on oil drilling, paving the way for E & B Natural Resources to drill 30 wells into Hermosa Beach’s uplands and tidelands.

On election night the Yes vote trailed by 80 percent. At tonight’s meeting, Doerfling added 2,692 absentee and provisional votes to the vote total. Though accounting for nearly 36 percent of the total vote, the additional ballots reflected to within one-half of a percent the vote split on election night.The final results showed 20.5 percent favored lifting the oil drilling ban and 79.5 percent favored keeping the ban in place.

Doerfling said she was pleased with the high voter turnout, which equaled 54 percent of Hermosa’s 13,898 registered voters.