There wasn’t a lot of in depth reporting on the recent Los Angeles City Elections. These elections, which included the Mayoral race, seemed to be a non-event in my household and even TV and the internet seemed to be only reporting the bare minimum of information. The local newspapers did have more coverage than most mediums but even then it was almost entirely on how Antonio Villaraigosa had won or how he had not won by as much as everyone thought.
However there were two important things that came out of this election that were under reported yet very interesting to resident of the San Fernando Valley.
First of all, the turnout for this Los Angeles City Election was the lowest in a long time. According to the Los Angeles Times the voter turnout was at 15%, which is around 240,000 people. There was close to 50,000 other votes that were counted, “those include mail-in ballots dropped off at polling sites or mailed the day of the election, as well as provisional ballots and damaged ballots. Processing and verifying the validity of those ballots might not be completed until March 24″ according to another Los Angeles Times article.
Voter Turnout
The low voter turnout was compounded by the lack of interest by young voters that had just, months before, been so enthusiastic about voting in the Federal Elections. An article on the DailyTrojan.com website tells the shocking, or is it sad, tale that "By 8 p.m., 26 non-poll workers had voted at Marks Tower and 41 at the Catholic Center" polling station, the two closest USC polling booths. Although student turnout is always low for Los Angeles City elections the poll workers said that these elections were even lower than normal. I couldn't find any turnout information for polling booths at CSUN or even if there were specific CSUN polling places but I can assume that their numbers were just as low.
Perhaps at the moment people have "better" things to do rather than vote. Or perhaps Los Angeles has lost that fervor for Villarriagosa that we had when we swept him into power in 2005. Whatever it is, it needs to be addressed and we need to encourage people to participate in the voting process. Barely 150,000 people voted for Villariagosa to stay on as mayor. In a city of 4 million, with 1.6 million registered voters, that is such a small number to decide who heads our city.
The second thing that is even more interesting, especially for residents of the San Fernando Valley, is that Los Angeles Times analysis of the preliminary vote count showed that Villaraigosa won the election in 14 of the 15 City Council districts. The district that he lost was the 12th district. That's right, the San Fernando Valley's 12th district. Villariagosa lost to challenger Walter Moore in conservative northwest San Fernando Valley's 12th District, which includes Chatsworth and Northridge and is represented by Councilman Greig Smith. In the 12th District Moore received 42.4% of the vote compared with Villaraigosa's 37.3%.
So to put it simply, the San Fernando Valley didn't even vote in favor of Villariagosa. The people of the 12th District voted for challenger Walter Moore who was the only real challenger in the overall mayoral race and in my opinion will be an even stronger contender in the next election, especially if Villariagosa can not stir up enthusiasm for his policies in the next few years. On the graphic below, from the Los Angeles Times website, you can see the lack of support for the Mayor in most of the San Fernando Valley.
Support for Villariagosa Lacking in the San Fernando Valley
So what does this say for the San Fernando Valley? I think it shows that there is a clear divide between the values and desires of the Valley and the rest of Los Angeles City. This might be a good time to revisit the discussion on whether we should secede from Los Angeles City and become our own self-governing city. However that is an argument for another post. I hope that if succession does come on the ballot again, in a future election, that the 1.8 million residents of the San Fernando Valley make their way to the polls and make their opinions heard. If 150,000 people can vote in the mayor then the residents of the San Fernando Valley should easily be able to pass a succession ballot measure if that is what you want.
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