LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Voters on Tuesday chose a new Lake County sheriff, returned the incumbent district attorney to office, selected a new assessor-recorder, and passed new marijuana rules but failed to give the necessary votes to a sales tax measure to benefit Clear Lake.

The Tuesday primary settled the season's main race – that of sheriff-coroner, with law enforcement veteran Brian Martin winning the sheriff's race with 51.4 percent of the vote.

Incumbent Frank Rivero received 25.9 percent of the vote and Bob Chalk, Clearlake's retired police chief, received 22.7 percent of the vote in the preliminary results posted early Wednesday morning.

In the district attorney's race, incumbent Don Anderson will move on to a second term, taking 59.3 percent of the vote. Lakeport attorney Andre Ross, an ally of Rivero's who had come into the race at the last minute to challenge Anderson, received 40.7 percent.

The race to succeed retiring Assessor-Recorder Doug Wacker also was decided on Tuesday.

Richard Ford, the county's assistant auditor-controller, won the three-way race with attorney Sorhna Li Jordan and bar owner Logan Weiper.

Ford received 50.1 percent of the vote, with Jordan taking 26.6 percent and Weiper 23.3 percent.

In the District 2 supervisorial race, incumbent Jeff Smith led throughout the night, ending with 45 percent of the vote.

He was challenged by Clearlake City Council members Joyce Overton and Jeri Spittler.

For most of the night Overton had run in second place, but when the last of the precincts were counted, Spittler had 27.9 percent of the vote and Overton 27.1 percent, setting the stage for a November runoff between Smith and Spittler.

The race for the District 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors also is going to a November runoff.

It was a six-man race that throughout Tuesday was led by Clearlake Oaks resident Jim Steele, who finished with 32.4 percent of the vote.

John Brosnan of Upper Lake, with 19.2 percent, would edge out businessman Marvin Butler – who came in with 17 percent of the vote and had been in second place most of the evening – for the chance to race against Steele for the office in November.

Clearlake Oaks resident Herb Gura would finish with 15.8 percent of the vote, while fellow Clearlake Oaks residents James Brown and Mark Currier finished with 11.2 percent and 5.4 percent of the vote, respectively.

Regarding county measures on the ballot, Measure N, the county ordinance establishing rules for medical marijuana cultivation that had been forced to referendum, won with a “yes” vote of 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent voting no. The measure needed a simple majority to go into effect.

At the same time, the latest attempt to pass a specific tax to help protect Clear Lake and other water bodies failed.

The Measure L “Healthy Lake” sales tax measure received 63.9 percent of the vote. However, because it was a specific tax that would have dedicated revenues only to the listed water quality projects, it needed 66 percent of the vote to pass.

In other results from Tuesday, winning election and running unopposed were Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen, County Clerk-Auditor Cathy Saderlund and Brock Falkenberg, seeking the county superintendent of schools seat.

Overall voter turnout was low in Lake County's Tuesday primary election.

The preliminary results from the Registrar of Voters Office showed that 28.5 percent – or just over 9,700 of the county's nearly 34,000 registered voters – cast ballots in the Tuesday contest. Of those, 13.4 percent were cast in precincts and 15.2 percent were absentee.

Tuesday's turnout was down from the voter turnout for the June 2010 primary, when 47.5 percent – or approximately 15,559 of a reported 32,763 registered voters – participated, according to Registrar of Voters records.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.