We all know no one drives... or votes in LA. But just how bad is it?
While provisional and late absentee ballots will likely push this number upwards, LA County looks to have truned out to Tuesday's elections at just about 11.5 percent. That's about 600,000 ballots, according to the running tally published by the County Registrar.
This has been the case for years in off cycle LA elections, and is why the City of LA pushed their future elections to even years via ballot measure, and the Legislature, in its wisdom, passed SB 415 which will compel most smaller cities to do likewise.
This always struck us as being not quite the right fix. Given the likelihood that voters will continue to face myriad ballot questions on top of state and federal candidate races, moving the municipal elections to the bottom of the November ballot seemed a little like bumping the State of the Union up to after the Super Bowl to juice its ratings. Sure, you'll draw some extra eyeballs, but they're glazed over from the main event.
Be that as it may, it's tough to excuse single digit, or in this case, 12 percent participation. Moving the elections is a papering over of the larger problem, but it's difficult to justify the governing mandate for elected officials voted in with say, just handful of older white homeowners who turn in absentee ballots as automatically as property tax payments.
We began joking in the office... might there be more potholes in LA than voters? Could there even be more Giants fans expatriated to Los Angeles than engaged citizens?
One comparison we could verify, according to The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), there are likely twice as many dogs in LA County as voters.
In a report from 2014, AVMA was referenced as calculating 1,139,279 dogs countywide, which even with the late count this week is probably double the final ballot tally
Woof.