Voters Trickle Into Westside Polling Places

Voters on the Westside trickled to the polls to vote on 10 citywide ballot measures with only sparse voter attendance reported mid-day in Venice, Mar Vista and Playa del Rey.

The ballot included 16 candidates vying for four seats on the board of the Los Angeles Community College District and 10 ballot measures that were created with the city's massive budget deficit in mind. The measures included Proposition O, an effort to tax oil companies for extracting oil within the city limits, and Proposition L, which would earmark more money for city libraries. Other parts of the city had more contested ballots with races to fill City Council seats and spots on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

At around noon at St Bede’s Episcopal Church on Grand View Boulevard in Mar Vista, only three people were filing their ballots. The church hall is the official polling place for two separate districts, but neither had received a high voter turnout.
 
Of the 800 people in district 9001564B registered to vote only 38 had cast their ballots, and only 25 had voted in district 9001567A, which has 850 registered voters.
 
“We do have a lot of absentee ballots,” said inspector Willie Considine who has been a volunteer for over 20 years. “But there’s always a small turnout for city elections,” she said. Considine also noted that usually there are four or five booths for voters to cast their ballots. “This time we only got three,” she said, “so we’re obviously not expecting a huge turnout.”

In Venice, only 10 people had voted at the Hotel Erwin by noon and turnout wasn't much better at the Electric Lodge polling station where only 28 people had voted by 12:50 p.m.

At the Westchester Masonic Church on Manchester Boulevard in Playa del Rey, five volunteers waited for voters Tuesday afternoon.

"It's not good," said Donna, a polling place volunteer.

At the nearby Del Rey Hills Evangelical Church, three poll workers said 36 voters had cast their ballots by 2:15 p.m. and said they were passing the time by talking, drinking coffee and tea and eating donuts.

Poll workers at various sites said they hoped more voters would show up after they got off work.

That sentiment was expressed by wo poll workers at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church hall on Centinela and Venice Boulevards.

“We have 1960 people registered to vote here,” said Sharon Miller, “but only 25 have shown up so far.”
 
Miller said that if they received 50 voters at the end of the day that would be a good number.

Inspector David Showers also said he did not expect a large turnout.
 
One voter showed up, and although he did not wish to give his name said he felt it was important to vote.

“I regard it not just as a civic duty but a civic privilege,” said the man who revealed he was a Vietnam veteran. “Us [veterans] learned something very important in that war,” he said. “You can never trust a politician. That’s why it’s important to exercise your right to vote.”