Dennis Evanosky

This stately Italianate home on Central Avenue reminds passers-by to keep Measure A. Monday's decision by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters avoided the question, "Which Measure A?"

After two weeks of hand wringing and wrangling, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald has agreed to call the SunCal initiative "Measure B" rather than "Measure A." Until the decision was made late Monday, city officials and voters alike had expressed their concern that Macdonald's original decision to tag the initiative with the moniker "Measure A." If that decision had held, Alameda voters would have gone to the polls in February to vote whether not to modify the existing Measure A by voting yes or no on a new Measure A.

"This is the first measure of the year, and that's the way it is," a spokesperson at Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald's office told the Alameda Sun Monday morning. Then on Monday afternoon City Clerk Lara Weisiger e-mailed the Sun with the news that Macdonald agreed to change the measure's designation from "A" to "B."

Weisiger said that Macdonald was aware of a provision in the California elections code that would allow him to name the new measure in a way that would avoid voter confusion. California Elections Code Section 13116, section b empowers the Registrar of Voters to change the labeling of a measure to avoid bewildering Alamedans.

Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker may have played a pivotal role in Macdonald's decision. After receiving calls and e-mails from Alameda voters and their elected officials about the decision to label SunCal's imitative Measure A, Lai-Bitker wrote a pointed letter to the Registrar of Voters on Nov. 20.

"I want to express my deep concern that naming this initiative as Measure A will create a massive amount of confusion among voters and potentially discredit the election results among Alameda residents," Lai-Bitker wrote. To make certain that Macdonald understood the scope of the confusion, Lai-Bitker clearly explained, "In 1973 the city of Alameda passed Measure A to limit the density of new building structures. The Alameda Point Development Initiative was put on the ballot to seek an exemption from the 1973 Measure A."

In her letter Lai-Bitker also pointed out to Macdonald that both proponents and opponents of the initiative make references to the 1973 Measure A as an essential element in voting for the initiative. In fact, Lai-Bitker told Macdonald that City Attorney Teresa Highsmith mentions the 1973 Measure A in her impartial analysis of the SunCal initiative.

"If the (SunCal) initiative is labeled Measure A voters will find it difficult to distinguish whether it is used in reference to the 1973 Measure A or the (SunCal) initiative," Lai-Bitker told Macdonald.

"On behalf of my Alameda constituents I am requesting that the (SunCal) initiative be relabeled and not be called Measure A," Lai-Bitker said in her letter.

In the end Macdonald agreed and changed the name of the measure that will go before Alameda's voters in February to "Measure B."

"The city is extremely grateful that the registrar (of voters) changed the letter (from A to B) in order to avoid voter confusion," Weisiger said. "The provision in the elections code exists for cases just like this and I'm very pleased that it has been properly applied."