Cali cigarette tax vote too close to call

CNN ^ | 6/6/12

[SoFloFreeper]

The fate of California's controversial Proposition 29, a proposed tax on cigarettes, was still unclear early Wednesday.

By 3 a.m. (6 a.m. ET), 98.6% of the precincts had reported. The vote tally stood at 49.2% in favor and 50.8% against the proposed law that would raise taxes on every pack of cigarettes by $1, yielding an estimated $735 million a year for the state, election officials said.

About three-quarters of money raised would go to cancer research.

[CounterCounterCulture]

I’m not understanding why this is too close to call. The tally so far is 50.8-49.2, which is a 1.6% margin. There are 1.4% of the precincts to count. What is the chance that the result will change? I realize that the probability is not zero, but it has to be very small. Maybe I could calculate it with a few more cups of coffee in me.

Each Registrar of Voters still has to verify the signatures of the vote-by-mail ballots that were delievered Tuesday (more people will likely drop off a VBM at a local polling place than actually vote there). Then upon verification, those ballots will be processed.

Since my ballot was submitted Tuesday, mine probably hasn't been tallied yet, but should by sometime this week, today at the earliest.

Then after that, they go through the provisional ballots to see if they're legitimate.

[Wingy]

I’m sure that there is something in life that brings you pleasure, and if the powers that be decide that it is a thing that needs to be taxed, please don’t complain here.

[samtheman]

I’m not going to get in an argument about it, but I’m just going to say I’m against targeted sales taxes like this one, with the contradicting dual goals of making a bunch of money off of “bad behavior” while at the same time supposedly trying to limit or stop the “bad behavior”.

These are nanny state idiots and I don’t really feel like I have to get into explaining that to you.

If you don’t see it that way, fine. We disagree.