Measure J Was Defeated in Every City, Certified Ballot Results Show : Special election: The margins varied widely, from more than 10 to 1 in Yorba Linda to less than 2 to 1 in Santa Ana. Only 17.7% of the voters turned out.

SANTA ANA —  Measure J, which was defeated last week by a margin of more than 3 to 1, was rejected by voters in every city in the county, according to certified election results announced Monday by the registrar of voters office.

The results also show that only 17.7% of the county’s registered voters--or 185,847 out of 1.05 million--went to the polls last Tuesday, a record low turnout for a special countywide election, Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney said. The election cost $900,000 to conduct, Tanney said.

The proposal for a half-cent sales tax for jail construction did not come close to being approved in any city, although the levels of rejection varied widely: The margin was more than 10 to 1 in Yorba Linda and less than 2 to 1 in Santa Ana. According to the certified results, Measure J received 135,827 no votes and 49,062 yes votes.

“Can we now lose the NIMBY label?” said Bob Zemel, chairman of Taxpayers Against J, which opposed the measure.

Because the organized opposition to Measure J was composed mostly of residents of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda--the areas closest to Gypsum Canyon, where a 6,720-bed jail was proposed--they were accused of opposing the jail tax purely out of “not-in-my-back-yard” motives.

“Orange County recognizes a bad tax when it sees one,” Zemel said. “They also are not going to put up with seizing private property as an expenditure of a new tax. The (county) supervisors need to get that message.”

The Irvine Co., which owns the Gypsum Canyon land, has plans to build a residential community there. A majority of the supervisors have voted that site the most preferred for a 6,720-bed jail, and those supervisors want the county to buy the land--through eminent domain proceedings, if necessary--to build the jail.

Measure J would have increased the sales tax in the county to 7% and raised an average of $343 million a year during its 30-year life. A Regional Justice Facilities Commission had been appointed to decide on a master plan detailing how the revenues would be spent. Besides the proposal for a new regional jail in Gypsum Canyon, the commission was also considering a variety of other justice facilities.

Sheriff Brad Gates, who faces a serious overcrowding problem in the county’s five-jail system, was the measure’s chief backer. Three of the five county supervisors submitted a proposal to the commission, at Gates’ request, to make construction of a jail in Gypsum Canyon the No. 1 priority.

Gates said Monday that the results indicate that voters saw Measure J chiefly as a tax measure and not as a jail-construction referendum. Had voters understood the full significance of the measure, he said, residents in areas such as Santa Ana and El Toro--mentioned as possible jail sites should the county not build in Gypsum Canyon--would have shown more support for it.

“I don’t believe people rejected solving the jail problem,” Gates said. “I think people still believe that the Gypsum Canyon jail is our best alternative and that we should go ahead.”

The election results also show that turnout varied widely, from 14% in Stanton (where 453 voters favored it, and 1,051 did not), to 27% in Yorba Linda (where 644 favored it and 6,804 did not).

In the 14 precincts identified by Tanney as Anaheim Hills, 96% of those voting cast ballots against the measure, compared to 3.8% who voted yes.