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Updated: 2012 Election in Berkeley: Voters 90% for Obama, 91% for Prop 30—Props 34 and 37 and Measure B1 also favored by large margins (News Analysis)
90.3% of Berkeley voters voted to re-elect Barack Obama as president. That’s down from the 92.5% who supported him in 2008. John Kerry won 90.0% of the vote in Berkeley in 2004 presidential election.
Mitt Romney only managed to get 4.6% of the Berkeley vote this year; Green Party candidate Jill Stein got 3.2%. 54,163 votes were cast for Obama in Berkeley; 2766 for Romney and 1917 for Stein.
| Prop or Measure | Percent of vote
|
| Prop 30 taxes | 90.7% Yes |
| Prop 31 Budget | 78.4% No |
| Prop 32 unions | 85.6% No |
| Prop 33 auto insurance | 83.4% No |
| Prop 34 Death Penalty | 85.7% Yes |
| Prop 35 Human Trafficking | 67.0% Yes |
| Prop 36 3 strikes | 92.4% Yes |
| Prop 37 GMO labeling | 74.6% Yes |
| Prop 38 Income tax hike | 69% No |
| Prop 39 Multistate Businesses Tax | 85.1% Yes |
| Prop 40 Redistricting | 87.2% yes |
| Measure A1 parcel tax for Oakland Zoo | 65.5% Yes |
| Measure B1 sales tax transportation | 80.8% Yes |
President
A total of 60,559 Berkeley voters voted this year; 59,974 of these voted for president.
Final election results from other states and counties are not yet available, but based on available results, it looks like Detroit, Gary, Indiana, Washington, D.C., Inglewood in L.A. County are cities with populations of 100,000 or more that produced higher percentages for Obama than Berkeley.
With provisional ballots not included, 96.8% of voters in Gary favored Obama. Provisional ballots have also not been counted in Washington, but so far Obama has 90.9%.
Among cities with a majority of white residents, Berkeley tops the list once again for percentage of votes for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Cities where over 80%, but less than 90%, of the vote went to Obama include: Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, New York City, and Cambridge, MA,
Propositions 30 and 37
Based on the total number of votes cast by Berkeley voters, Propositions 30 and 37 were the propositions that Berkeley voters cared most about. 58,277 votes were cast on Prop 30; 57,273 on Prop 37.
Prop 30, which will increase state income tax rates for the wealthy and will increase the state sales tax by ¼%, garnered a slightly higher percentage than Obama: 90.7%.
That’s probably the highest percentage of any city in the state. Statewide, the measure is currently at 54.9% with the results not yet finalized.
Proposition 37, which would require labeling of genetically engineered food, failed statewide by about 52% to 48%, but it passed easily in Berkeley 74.6% of the vote; San Francisco voters voted 68% Yes.
Other Props and Measures
Prop 34, which would have abolished the death penalty in California, also lost statewide with the current, not yet finalized count at 52.2% to 47.8%. But it won about 86% of the vote in Berkeley.
On other State propositions, Berkeley voted like the rest of the state, but by larger percentages, except on Proposition 35, the human trafficking measure, which is now at 81% statewide, but was supported by a smaller 67% in Berkeley.
And Alameda County Measure B1, the sales tax measure to fund transit and other transportation improvements, won almost 81% in Berkeley, while narrowly falling short of the required two thirds countywide. Backers of the measure may decide to request a recount now that the county has certified the final results.
