Here's a rundown of the Santa Clara County ballot measures as Tuesday's election progressed and after all the precincts were counted. One measure passed, and two didn't.

Measure A did not pass. The $29 parcel tax that would have guaranteed health insurance coverage for low-income kids did not get the super-majority it needed. With all precincts reporting, it had only 58.43 percent, or 185,510 votes, for it and 47.80 percent, or 151,039, against it.

The measure's backers aren't giving up, though. "At least a lot of people in our community care about kids, but this is a hard time economically for so many folks," said Cindy Chavez, executive director of the South Bay Labor Council. "We'll put it on the ballot again in a couple of years."

Measure B passed. The majority of voters approved a $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee, with 164,956 votes, or 52.20 percent, in favor of the measure, with all precints reporting. Santa Clara County was not alone. Measure M in San Mateo, similar to Measure B in Santa Clara County, passed, too

Measure E did not pass. The $69 Foothill-De Anza College parcel tax measure could not get the two-thirds majority it needed, with 58.12 percent, or 49,553 votes, for it and 41.88 percent, or 35,705, against it, with all precincts reporting.

In a written statement, Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees President Bruce Swenson and Chancellor Linda Thor said the board struggled for months with the decision to put an educational funding measure on the ballot.

"In the end, after seeing thousands of students unable to get classes they need, the board felt morally compelled to ask district voters if they would provide temporary local funding to help offset deep state budget cuts that have hurt so many students," the statement said. "It is bittersweet that a majority of voters supported Measure E but that it did not receive the necessary two-thirds approval. 

"We know how highly our community values education and believe that in better economic times more residents would have supported this modest, limited-term parcel tax." 

Tuesday, Nov. 2:

With a third of Santa Clara County's precincts counted early Tuesday night, a parcel tax that would guarantee health insurance for poor children in the county had yet to garner the 66.6 percent needed to pass.

Another parcel tax aimed at providing money for the cash-strapped Foothill-De Anza Community College District was also short of a super-majority.

However, a $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee appeared to be winning the simple majority it needed to raise money for the region's roadways.

Measure A, the $29 parcel tax that would guarantee health insurance coverage for low-income children of working families, had 125,420 yes votes, or 57.90 percent, to 91,199 no votes, or 42.10 percent, with 342 of 1,234 precincts reporting.

Measure E, the Foothill-De Anza College parcel tax of $69, had 33,281 yes votes, or 57.32 percent, to 24,783 no votes, or 42.68 percent, with 54 of 271 precincts reporting.

Measure B, the $10-per-vehicle registration fee increase, which required a majority vote of 50 percent, had 114,055 yes votes, or 52.79 percent, to 101,998 no votes, or 47.21 percent, with 342 of 1,234 precincts reporting.

Doug McNea, president of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Association, opposed the three measures, saying voters were taxed enough already during the Great Recession. He said voters affected by the measures would have to pay $108 in new parcel taxes. "It will add to our property tax bill, and there's already a list of 20 separate items," he lamented.

Measure A
While Measure A was short of the necessary two thirds, supporters held out hope. "It was a very well run campaign … there was an enormous amount of support for the measure," said Michael Elliott, a spokesman for the nonprofit Valley Medical Center Foundation, one of the measure's key supporters.

Elliott called the initiative one of the most important issues on the ballot.

The parcel tax, which would raise $13.5 million per year for 10 years, faced no major opposition. It was placed on the ballot by labor and business groups and a variety of social service and humanitarian organizations. Its only obstacle was reaching the challenging 66.6 percent threshold to pass.

More than $1 million was raised to run the campaign, which included TV commercials, mailers, phone banking, advertising in targeted publications and staffing for volunteer coordination. "All the pieces were in place for the measure to prevail," Elliott said.

Voters agreed with the measure's numerous supporters, because the county's Children's Health Initiative's Healthy Kids program has been one of the most successful public policy innovations in the valley for the past decade, having been replicated in other states, allowing tens of thousands of children to receive health insurance, he explained.

"The benefit has not only been for their health, but it's meant more money for school because kids are sick less … there was a lot of support in keeping it going," Elliott said.

The Healthy Kids program, established in 2000, made Santa Clara County the first in the country to guarantee that all children would have health insurance. Federal and state programs such as Medical and Healthy Families provide funding for very low-income children's health care. However, many children fall through the cracks, not qualifying because parents either make too much money or children are too old. Measure A guarantees a funding source for the Healthy Kids program.

Elliott said between 15,000 and 16,000 children would benefit from the parcel tax. "It's a very modest amount of money for a very good return," Elliott said. "It's about kids … It's about what we value in this community."

Chris Wilder, executive director of VMCF, said the initiative had an army of volunteers helping. "I think we'll prevail even in a bad economy," he said.

Measure E
Optimism was also the sentiment expressed by Becky Bartindale, a spokeswoman for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. On Monday, she said she was hoping the parcel tax would triumph. If the parcel tax passes, the community college wouldn't start to collect it until November 2011, and it would end in 2016. A citizen's oversight committee would watch how the money was spent, and not a dime could be spent on salaries for administrators.

Foothill-De Anza Community College District Trustee Betsy Bechtel, chairwoman of the Measure E Campaign, said the measure's outcome was going to be close. "We called a lot of people and found a lot of support for it," Bechtel said, adding that the district will greatly benefit from it as it has suffered more than $20 million in reductions in funding during the past two years.
She said the colleges, which enroll about 46,000 students, have a huge demand for classes, because University of California campuses have increased fees, making the district's classes more affordable. She said the district has 10,000 students on a waiting list for classes this fall, and expenses have been cut for three years and numbers of positions have been eliminated.

While district voters have never passed a parcel tax before, they approved a bond measure in 2006, which raised $490 million for capital improvement projects at both colleges over a 20-year period.

If the measure fails, Bechtel said, "It's going to be very difficult over the next few years … we won't be able to provide the services for our students and add the classes back that we've had to eliminate."

The measure's language said the parcel tax revenue would be used to preserve affordable, quality education for students, including core academic classes such as math, science and writing; training for careers in healthcare, nursing, paramedics, technology, engineering and sciences; and preparing students to transfer to four-year universities.

McNea called the money an inappropriate use of a parcel tax, because anyone can attend the district's colleges and benefit from the funding, while local homeowners are burdened with the tax. "Why stick the homeowners with a parcel tax?" he asked. "I hope the ones that require two-thirds vote will fail."

Measure B
Like seven other counties in the Bay Area, Santa Clara placed a $10-per-vehicle registration fee increase on the ballot to help pay for road maintenance as state and federal dollars for highway repair diminish, said John Ristow, a spokesman for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

State law required the Valley Transit Authority board to prove that the fee increase would actually benefit the motorists shelling out the additional $10, Ristow said. The $14 million the fee is expected to raise would be distributed to cities for road maintenance and a larger countywide program that will use matching state and federal funds for upgrading traffic signals throughout the county, Ristow said.

The measure polled well early this year, Ristow added. "It's a pretty simple thing for people to understand … They pay a fee like that and they get better roads."

McNea is skeptical. He predicted legal challenges if the fee is approved, possibly by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "It's a tax masquerading as a fee to lower the voter threshold," he said. "A true fee allows everyone to receive a benefit in proportion to the amount that they pay, and the spending plans for this don't necessarily give equal benefit to every vehicle owner in the county."