November 4, 2007

Few expected for upcoming Election Day
By Mike Sprague Staff Writer

Election Day is scheduled for Tuesday. Does anybody know? Does anyone care?

Will the local electorate go to the polls and vote?

If it's like most off-year elections for school and water boards, few will.

The highest turnout in a nonstatewide election was 17.7 percent in November 1983. Turnout four years ago was a meager 11.4 percent.

While turnout was nearly 50 percent two years ago, it was a part of a statewide election to vote on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's measures.

"The turnout has been the same for decades," said Whittier Mayor Owen Newcomer, also a professor of political science at Rio Hondo College.

"It's typically 10 percent or sometimes below that," Newcomer said.

For example, only 8 percent voted in the November 2001 Whittier Union High School District election.

Typically, voters tend to be older, more educated and have ties to the community, experts say.

Most people don't even know there's an election, said Barbara Stone, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Fullerton.

"Despite the fact they claim you know your local people best, people don't," Stone said. "Unless something is going wrong, they don't pay

And even in those few cases, turnout remains low.

In a hotly contested high school district election that saw three incumbents kicked out in November 1997, turnout was 12 percent.

Turnout is more likely to be driven by candidates than voters, Stone said.

"It's literally up to the candidates to get people out," she said.

Most candidates in turn focus on the minority of voters who will cast ballots, Newcomer said.

"Thus the people in the past aren't getting mail from the candidates, aren't talking to the candidates and aren't getting anything saying there's an election going on," he said.

Part of the problem may be television. There's little coverage of local issues, said Richard Harvey, professor emeritus of political science at Whittier College.

"It just goes to show that publicity on television rules the day," Harvey said.

Local candidates certainly can't afford the money for TV ads, he said.

"You obviously can't afford on limited budgets for water district - even for school boards - to mount much of a campaign," Harvey said. "Even if you could, (the campaign) would be overwhelmed by media coverage of high levels (like presidential races)."

It does appear that city council races will have higher turnout than school boards.

For example, 25 percent of Montebello voters went to the polls for the November 2001 council election.

"There is more publicity about (city council elections)," Newcomer said. "What the city council does tends to be in the news from week to week. What the school board (does) doesn't."

Candidates say finding those few voters can be difficult.

"I find it difficult because it's almost a mind game on who's going to vote," said Richard LeGaspi, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District board member who is up for re-election Tuesday.

"We have to find those people who turn out for the election," LeGaspi said. "That's the sad part. We're killing ourselves trying to get out the word, trying to talk to everybody."

Mike Spence, a West Covina Unified School District board member who also is up for re-election, said campaigns often focus on absentee ballot voters.

Spence said low turnout isn't all that bad.

"People who are voting are more informed," Spence said. "They're coming to vote because they're concerned about their school or city."

Although most people don't vote, no one questions the legitimacy of these elections.

"It doesn't bode well for (democracy), but here we are, we're still surviving," Harvey said.

"Who's going to question the legitimacy?" he asked. "It's a free election. It's a free country. The opportunity is there."