BERKELEY -- A proposal to fund pedestrian-friendly street innovations by taxing property owners fell short of the required two-thirds majority in late returns Tuesday. With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Measure L had 54.4 percent, or about 11,159 votes. Updated Nov 6, 2:45 pm

BERKELEY — In a city where civic participation is in vogue, this year’s election failed to bring out even the people who were registered with only 45% of them bothering to show up. Updated Nov 6, 2:45 pm

BERKELEY -- Local coffee shops won out over small Central American farmers as
voters overwhelmingly rejected the closely watched Fair Trade coffee initiative. Measure O, would have required that all coffee served in Berkeley be organic or certified Fair Trade. Updated Nov. 6, 2:37 pm

BERKELEY -- Incumbent Dona Spring cruised to victory Tuesday night in her race to retain her Berkeley City Council seat, easily defeating three challengers. Updated Nov. 6, 1:42 am

BERKELEY -- With most of the votes counted, it looks like Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington will keep his job. Updated Nov. 6, 1:32 am

BERKELEY -- Former advisory committee member Nancy Riddle, along with incumbents Terry Doran and Shirley Issel, won the three open spots on the five-member Board of Education in Tuesday's election. Updated Nov. 6, 1:30 am

BERKELEY -- With a lead that grew larger throughout the night, Tom Bates, the longtime Berkeley assemblyman, was elected the city's new mayor. Updated Nov. 6, 1:30 am

BERKELEY -- Berkeley voters Tuesday night overwhelmingly told the city not to further limit the height of buildings. Updated Nov. 6, 1:20 am

BERKELEY -- With the help of a $20,000 donation from a Berkeley resident, late returns indicate that the city will get a new animal shelter. Updated Nov. 6, 12:15 am

They are running against politicians with more money, more high-powered endorsements and a much better chance of winning. Why do they do it? L.A. Wood and Rhiannon are challenging popular incumbents on the Berkeley City Council.

Some people might be intimidated by the arcane bureaucracy of Berkeley's city council, but L. A. Wood says he loves it. Ten years of watching from the sidelines, sitting in on city council meetings and serving on commissions, have given Wood, 52, what he says is an intimate knowledge of how the council works. Now he hopes to put that knowledge to work as he challenges incumbent Dona Spring for the District 4 council seat.

BERKELEY -- She's an unlikely candidate: an unemployed woman with only one name who has never run for office. And she's taking on a popular incumbent.

In some neighborhoods of Berkeley less than half of the adults make the decisions for all. Those who have the voting habit tend to be seniors, while students go to the polls in surprisingly small numbers. The outsiders in the political process often defy the stereotype: They have strong opinions about why they stay home on Election Day. Political scientists say that changing non-voters into voters could transform Berkeley politics.

BERKELEY - It is considered one of the tightest races in the city, and with a collective campaign chest of $81, 552, it is also the most expensive.

BERKELEY-- Election Day in one district in Berkeley will be a formality this year. "It's really not a race," said council member Kriss Worthington about the District 1 council race between incumbent Linda Maio and her challenger, named simply, Rhiannon. "Linda will easily win," says Worthington, "and it won't be close."

BERKELEY--While Berkeley students regularly raise their voices on issues ranging from policy in the Middle East to affirmative action to the environment, surprisingly few students take their politics to the polls.

BERKELEY - Sitting in the North Berkeley Senior Center's tiny gift shop, reading the Economist and fiddling with her earrings, 92-year-old Ruth Moser Chesboro discussed why people of her generation are more than twice as likely to vote as students.

BERKELEY - They want to change society; they have strong opinions; yet they don't vote. It's a paradox that at least some of the 88,000 eligible voters in Berkeley -- people who feel removed from the mainstream -- choose to live with.

BERKELEY -- Berkeley city politics, for more than ten years defined by progressive Democrats having a one-vote majority on the city council, is unlikely to change until non-voters are brought into the electoral process, according to political scientists.