With all 88 precincts reporting, Measure Q was trounced, with 64 percent of voters against it and 36 percent in favor.

The measure was an effort on behalf of Berkeley’s sex workers to decriminalize prostitution. As it stands now, a prostitution arrest results in a misdemeanor charge and a fine. Proponents of Measure Q insist the prospect of a $500 charge prohibits many sex workers from going to police when attacked by their pimps or clients. Robyn Few, director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, said decriminalizing sex work would give prostitutes the power to turn in their abusive pimps.

Californians for Civil Liberties, the group supporting the controversial measure, raised more than $4,000 to promote the idea of decriminalized prostitution to Berkeley voters. Jamie Maxwell, a Berkeley prostitute, said sex workers who are abused by their pimps are too scared to report the crime to the police.

“When they’re beaten up, prostitutes themselves get arrested and this puts a lot of power in the hands of their pimps,” she said. “Measure Q makes a formal request to have prostitution not be a priority for police.”

But Berkeley Police Department Public Information Officer Joe Okies said prostitution is already a low priority for the department.

“Currently the Berkeley Police Department doesn’t consider this a high priority,” he said. “When we respond to prostitution, we are responding to citizen complaints.”

Proponents and opponents of the measure each declare it is a matter of women’s rights. Some argue that decriminalizing prostitution would help sex workers who are being abused, while others say that decriminalizing it would support the sex workers’ decision to exploit their sexuality for a living.

Margot Smith, of the Berkeley Gray Panthers, said although she wants sex work to remain a criminal offense, she realizes that keeping prostitution as a criminal offense won’t make the problem go away.

“Women who go into that thing don’t really have other skills,” she said.

This is not the first time a measure on the Berkeley ballot has been surrounded by controversy. A 2001 ballot measure would have made it illegal to sell non-fair trade coffee in Berkeley. Although the legislation was defeated, it made national headlines much like Measure Q.

The efforts of Berkeley’s sex workers to unionize and demand rights will soon be happening all over the country, Few said. “Sex workers are lowest on the totem pole for rights,” she said. “We have no union to give us any labor rights. The labor commission says it doesn’t have the money to enforce labor laws for sex workers.”

The Committee Against Measure Q has raised more than $5,000 to thwart the efforts of the sex workers. Brad Smith, committee treasurer, said there are already substantial complaints about syringes, used condoms and fights in areas frequented by prostitutes. These problems would only get worse if prostitution was no longer a crime, he said. Other residents recognize that this issue is too big for Berkeley to take on. Smith said this issue is better left up to the state.

“I don’t think it’s something this city alone can take on,” said Smith. “It’d have to be a state or federal thing. You have to go and deal with each person’s individual situation. But that’s very expensive and time consuming and out society has never been willing to put money into it.”