In election returns updated early Wednesday morning, Oceanside voters rejected an ordinance that would phase out rent control in the city's 17 mobile-home parks, as well as a plan to change the way the city elects its officials.

With 100 percent of precincts counted, Proposition E ---- the measure that would gradually eliminate rent control ---- was failing with 65 percent of the voters saying no and 35 percent voting yes.

Proposition F, which would require city officials to be elected by a majority of votes cast, also was failing with 57 percent saying no and 43 percent yes.

The election results are unofficial, with 135,000 absentee and provisional ballots still to be tallied countywide. But those votes are unlikely to change the outcome in Oceanside.

Mobile-home resident Chris Gow said she Tuesday night was "just ecstatic" over the vote on Proposition E.

"I'm really not sure why people are voting the way they are except that they're tired of the way the three councilmen run this city," said Gow, president of the Oceanside Manufactured Homeowners Alliance.

Proposition E was backed by councilmen Jerry Kern, Gary Felien and Jack Feller.

"We're sure that some other issue about mobile-home residency will come up again so we can't let our guard down," Gow said Tuesday. "From what I understand, (the council majority) have a check list and they're just going down the list. We don't know what's next on that list, but we will be ready for them."

Kern, who championed the so-called decontrol measure that became Proposition E, said he's convinced that most people oppose rent control but "we just couldn't get people to the polls."

"Reform is hard," Kern said. "When you let people vote themselves a subsidy, they're going to vote themselves a subsidy. They have a financial interest."

Kern predicted that as long as rent control remains, there's no incentive for park owners to stay in the mobile-home business.

"Within the next 10 or 15 years, those mobile-home parks will either close or become condos because the system is unsustainable," Kern said.

Park owners aren't giving up despite the failure of Proposition E, said Amy Epsten, whose family owns two Oceanside mobile-home parks.

"We will regroup. One thing you definitely can count on is we will always continue fighting for our property rights," Epsten said. "I promise, we will get our property rights back."

Kern and Epsten blamed the no vote on Proposition E on low voter turnout.

The issue "resonates with a lot of property owners and Republicans but you can't make people vote," Epsten said.

Proposition F, also put on the ballot by the three-member council majority, was likely failing as fallout from the no vote on Proposition E, Kern said.

"People didn't read it," Kern said. Many of those who voted no on Proposition E just went down the ballot and voted no for F, Kern said.

Under Prop. E, rent control would stay in place for people already living in rent-controlled spaces but would be removed when they move or sell their homes.

Proposition F requires that the mayor, City Council members, city clerk and city treasurer be elected by a majority vote rather than a plurality.

If no one running for a specific seat gets more than 50 percent of the vote, there would be a runoff election.

Candidates for mayor and City Council will continue to run at-large citywide but they would run for numbered seats.

Before the election, some of those campaigning against Proposition E predicted that it would have repercussions in the November election, when Kern is running for mayor against incumbent Jim Wood and council members Esther Sanchez and Jack Feller are running for re-election.

"This whole rent control issue has gotten a lot of attention,"  said Dana Corso, president of the Alliance of Citizens to Improve Oceanside Neighborhoods.

Corso said the issue has united voters with disparate interests who are upset by some council actions, such as a push to resurrect a proposed Highway 78 interchange at Rancho Del Oro Road and completion of a segment of Melrose Drive to provide a new link between Highway 78 and Highway 76.

Kern, who led the drive on the City Council to eliminate rent control,  said that by November, most voters will have forgotten about the rent control fight.

"I don't think it's going to be an indicator because the turnout is so low," Kern said. "In November, the issues are going to be a lot different."

Oceanside's mobile-home parks have been covered by rent control since 1984 but in May 2011, Kern led the council majority in voting 3-2 for the decontrol ordinance to phase it out.

Voting with Kern for a gradual end to rent control were Councilmen Jack Feller and Gary Felien. Wood and Sanchez voted against the decontrol ordinance and have campaigned against Proposition E.

Mobile-home residents and their allies stopped the ordinance from taking effect by collecting petitions signed by more than 15,000 people demanding that the council repeal the ordinance or put it on the ballot.

By another 3-2 vote, the council voted in August to put it on the ballot.

Kern and mobile-home park owners contended that rent control unfairly limited the return property owners could earn on their investments.

Mobile-home residents, most of whom own their coaches but rent the land on which they're located, argued that park owners are guaranteed a reasonable profit under rent control.

Many mobile-home residents are senior citizens or veterans, and they fear that they would lose the investment they have in their homes because no one would pay much for them if park owners could raise rents without limit, as they could with decontrol.

Under the 1984 ordinance, mobile-home rents could be raised annually by an amount equal to 75 percent of any increase in the regional consumer price index, which measures the costs of goods and services.

Park owners who wanted a greater increase can appeal to a city rent control board.

Proposition F was put on the ballot by the council majority at the urging of Felien, who contended that requiring candidates to win by a majority vote would result in a government more representative of the community at large.

Felien said voters may have been confused by the numbered seat provision in Proposition F, thinking it meant a switch from at-large to district elections.

With council members and the mayor now elected by a plurality, Felien said that a determined bloc of special interest voters could elect someone aligned with them.

No matter how many candidates run, the person with the most votes wins now.

Among those fighting against Proposition F, Sanchez said it would it would be a costly change for the city because Oceanside would have to pay for two elections instead of one ---- a primary and a runoff.

Sanchez and Wood also argued that Proposition F would disenfranchise many potential candidates because only those backed by special interests with deep pockets could afford to finance a primary and runoff campaign.

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