Hahn, Bowen, Huey Lead in Absentee Ballots with Low Turnout on Election Day

Absentee ballots that were mailed in prior to Tuesday's election have been counted and the early leaders are Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (6,269 votes, 24.4 percent), California Secretary of State Debra Bowen (5,448 votes, 21.2 percent) and Republican candidate Craig Huey (4,650 votes, 18.1 percent).

Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin followed with 2,707 absentee votes, 10.6 percent, and school teacher and anti-war activist Marcy Winograd had 2,046 mail-in votes, 8.0 percent.

The polls closed at 8 p.m. and the first returns from the field are expected about 9:30 p.m.

Voters turned out in small numbers Tuesday to choose their candidate for the vacant seat in the 36th Congressional District, officials said.

As of 4 p.m., approximately 7.6 percent of the 345,232 registered voters in the district that stretches from Venice to San Pedro had voted, said Eileen Shea, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office.

Voters continued to trickle into polling booths late Tuesday afternoon as local polling places reported low voter turnout in the special election to fill a vacant seat in Congress.

Despite the early-morning rain, there were no reports of weather-related problems or any voting irregularities, Shea said.

In Playa del Rey, voters sporadically showed up at the garage of Raphe Pavlick, 68, at the far western end of Manchester Boulevard. Eighty-one voters had cast their ballots and another 10 dropped off their mail-in ballots by 5:45 p.m., Pavlick said. There are about 900 registered voters in the precinct.

Pavlick has been opening his garage to voters for the past eight years.

"People enjoy coming here," he said. "It's neutral. It's not a church or an Elks Lodge or a Masons Hall."

Pavlick had some carrot cake for voters, but hardly anyone had nibbled on it.

The roomy garage was manned by Pavlick and two poll workers and Pavlick said he made sure to scrub it clean of any political references before welcoming voters.

"I had a Dixie Chicks poster in here once, and we actually had a complaint about it," he said, referencing the all-female country band who openly criticized President George W. Bush. Pavlick said he also had a complaint once after a voter heard liberal Air America Radio in his home and the voice of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who was formerly a fixture on the station.

At the Courtyard by Marriott Marina del Rey Hotel in Del Rey, only 52 voters had cast their ballots at 6:25 p.m. out of 750 registered voters in the precinct, poll workers said.