Riverside voters rejected medical marijuana dispensaries at the polls Tuesday, June 2, apparently defeating a measure that would have allowed up to 10 of the facilities to open in the city’s commercial and industrial zones.

Measure A was losing by a wide margin, according to early ballot counts in the all-by-mail election.

UPDATE: Election results will update Friday

Supporters said low voter interest and ballot language some people found confusing were factors that hurt their chances.

“I think one of the biggest things against us was it was an odd-year June election,” which probably drew mostly older, more conservative voters, said Jared McCreary, 28, who was one of a half-dozen volunteers who spent the afternoon calling people to remind them to vote.

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Riverside officials, who opposed the measure, said the election results show they are in tune with voters’ wishes.

Councilman Jim Perry said he wasn’t surprised by the results, but he doesn’t think it’s the end of the medical marijuana discussion.

“This has been an issue for quite a long time and now the people have spoken,” he said, but added that with a possible 2016 statewide ballot measure to legalize the drug, “It’s not going to go away.”

Had the issue passed, Riverside would have become the county’s fourth city to allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

An unknown number of ballots remained to be tallied. They count if they’re postmarked by Election Day and the registrar gets them by Friday, but most observers don’t expect an election-swinging amount to come in.

The measure would have permitted one medical marijuana dispensary for every 30,000 Riverside residents. It required the facilities to be at least 1,000 feet from schools and other dispensaries, and to have security guards and cameras.

The zones where dispensaries could have opened appeared concentrated on the Northside, in the Sycamore Canyon area and north of the airport. The measure also would have allowed some marijuana delivery service.

Jason Thompson, a Riverside attorney who helped draft the measure, said the public perception of dispensaries was an obstacle.

“The experience that everybody in the city has had has been negative and has been with illegal actors. That does poison the landscape,” he said.

“I still believe it would be an improvement to what we have and there will be regulated dispensaries in the city of Riverside,” Thompson said, but he has no reason to think Measure A backers would try again in the city.

Supporters of the initiative have said it would provide a safe, regulated way for ill people to get medicine. Critics, including Riverside’s City Council and police Chief Sergio Diaz, worried that the facilities would attract crime and make it easier for kids to get drugs.

Although California voters approved medical use of marijuana in 1996, some critics say a lack of clear guidelines has led to a largely unregulated and under-the-radar system for dispensing the drug. Riverside has vigorously opposed dispensaries, banning them in the zoning code and fighting in court to shut down facilities that opened in the city.

In Riverside County, only Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs allow storefront dispensaries.

Measure A was a voter-driven initiative crafted by medical marijuana activists and former dispensary operators. Though proponents spent more than $175,000 to qualify the measure for the ballot and promote it, the lack of an organized opposition campaign made for a low-key election.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 or arobinson@pe.com