Voters give thumbs down to Merced College’s Measure J, latest vote count shows

Measure J appears to be headed toward rejection by Merced County voters.

Measure J would have given Merced College a $247-million bond to renovate old buildings, build new ones and modernize career technical education programs.

It needed 55 percent of the vote to pass.

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday with 100% of the precincts reporting, Measure J had only 44.4 percent “yes” votes for a total of 10,330 of the total 23,267 votes counted. The “no” votes had totaled 12,937, giving the opposition 55.6% of the vote.

“We’re hoping for a late surge of votes and support,” Merced College President Chris Vitelli said Tuesday night. “There’s still thousands of votes out there. We don’t know what to make of it yet.”

In an Op-Ed that ran in the Merced Sun-Star, Vitelli said if the bond passed Merced College “would be able to expand and modernize labs, build an automotive technology and welding center, add a mechanized agriculture complex, and construct an allied health simulation lab for the nursing program, just to name a few of the possible projects.”

Vitelli also pointed out the steady growth in enrollment the past five years. With Merced College now offering free tuition to all first-time, full-time students through The California Promise, that enrollment will continue to grow.

With more students Merced College will need to improve and add facilities, Measure J supporters say.

“No matter what the result of this election is we’re going to continue the great work we do at Merced College,” Vitelli said. “I believe in the mission of the community college system. Our mission is to serve the students who come from the population of our community. Our community loves Merced College. They believe in what we do…So many families have had individuals walk through our halls and had graduates of Merced College.”

But opponents against Measure J felt the buildings at Merced College don’t need to be replaced.

In an Op-Ed against Measure J, recently retired Merced College lecturer Keith Law wrote: “If repairs and upgrades to existing buildings need to be made, then taxpayers should be presented with that bill. The cost of tearing down perfectly good structures and rebuilding them from scratch should not be borne by taxpayers.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 11:25 PM.