NC Elections Test
By Doug Epperhart
As neighborhood councils evolve, they seem to look more and more like the rest of government.
Never more so than last week, when the first council elections were
conducted by the city clerk’s office. The new electoral process
resulted from the city council’s embrace of a key recommendation by the
neighborhood council review commission (NCRC).
The first council elections run by the city clerk—Boyle Heights,
CANNDU, Central Alameda, Downtown Los Angeles, Greater Echo Park
Elysian, Lincoln Heights, Northwest San Pedro, and Wilmington—occurred
Thursday, June 12.
Beyond the city employees manning the polling places, the other great change is that all councils are now required to define stakeholders as those who live, work, own property or claim stakeholder status and affirm the factual basis for it.
Curious about how the city clerk’s people would handle eight different sets of rules and eager to test how factual a basis is necessary to be a stakeholder, I went to all of the council elections—and voted in all of them.
Here are some observations about my excellent adventure in election land.
First stop, Northwest San Pedro, 1:18 p.m.—I wrote down that I shopped in the area as the “factual basis” for being a stakeholder. No problem, no questions. I got to vote in all categories. One candidate for each office and no write-ins, making it very easy to choose—and I picked all the winners!
Next up, Wilmington, 2:10 p.m.—Three poll workers, one voter; the service was excellent. I asked if they had been given any criteria to determine whether people like me actually are stakeholders and what “factual basis” means. I was told they weren’t at liberty to talk about it.
For the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment’s these first City Clerk-managed NC elections, click here.
Anyway, I got a ballot. Three candidates running for three at-large seats. Again, an easy choice. By the way, the Wilmington council has 23 board members, but only three are elected. The other 20 are picked by caucuses representing specific categories, such as “business/industry” and “resident organizations.”
I was one of only about 20 voters in Wilmington. I wonder how many participate in the caucus process—or even know about it.
Boyle Heights, 3:10 p.m.—I crossed paths with DONE general manager BongHwan Kim who stopped just long enough to say, “hi.” This is the first place I saw someone on the corner handing out campaign literature. This is also the first place I saw more than one other voter. Staff said there had a been a “steady flow” since the polls opened. I got to vote only for “at-large” candidates, but almost every office offered more than one name.
Lincoln Heights, 3:40 p.m.—The polling place was the lobby of Lincoln High’s auditorium. Lots and lots of students voting. The only place I was asked for an I.D. I got the entire 16-page ballot. Lots of competition in this election. The students all seemed to have a slate flyer. Tests are easy when you can use a cheat sheet.
Greater Echo Park Elysian, 4:15 p.m.—I parked in front of the banner urging me to “Vote for Ida Talalla!” Poll workers told me it was O.K. because it was more than 100 feet from the entrance. Contested races in this election for everything except treasurer. Why doesn’t anybody ever want to be the treasurer?
Downtown Los Angeles, 4:47 p.m.—I saw Russ Brown out front of the Los Angeles Theater, where the voting was taking place. He said there were lines around the block during the first two hours and merchants complained customers couldn’t get in to their stores. No lines, but it was still busy when I got there.
Voters got ballots based on the various categories for which they qualified. Once they checked off your categories, the clerks would call out things like, “Can I get one at-large ballot, please?” just like the local diner. Served a ballot, one voted and headed for the door. On the way out, I spotted the candidate statements conveniently placed where you wouldn’t notice them.
Central Alameda, 5:45 p.m.—Candidate statements were front and center here. You couldn’t miss them. No lines, practically no voters. The ballot contained lots of blank spaces because hardly anybody signed up to run. There was a long list of write-ins, though. I was the first “affirmation” voter at this council, which seemed to greatly amuse the poll workers.
CANNDU, 6:15 p.m.—So far, so good. I breezed through the process. I usually claimed stakeholder status based on spending money in a council’s area. Only at Greater Echo Park Elysian ask where specifically I had shopped and that only because they were trying to figure which district’s ballot to give me.
I was grilled at CANNDU. Where did I spend money? What was the address? After a lot of back and forth, we settled on buying gas at a station down the street ($4.43 a gallon, by far the cheapest price I’d seen all day).
Finally convinced I possessed a basis factual enough to satisfy the city’s less-than-rigorous standards, they handed me a ballot for the at-large seat, the only one for which I could vote. There was no name on the ballot. “Are there any write-ins?” Nope.
What am I supposed to do with this ballot? It was suggested I could mark an “X” on it and drop it in the ballot box. It wouldn’t count, but at least they’d know I voted.
The city clerk could sum this party up as “you bring the candidates and we’ll bring the ballots.” Based on the uncontested races and blank spaces, I think the neighborhood councils need to do some more shopping. (Doug Epperhart is a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council governing board and an occasional contributor to CityWatch. He can be reached at
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
) ◘
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 50
Pub: June 20, 2008
|
