Prop A Poised for High Turnout

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

March 10 -- With less than two weeks to go in Santa Monica's first mail-in election, voter turnout is expected to easily surpass that of the last special election and could be the highest special election turnout in a decade, City officials said.

As of Monday morning, the City had received about 12,600 ballots for the "Homeowners Freedom of Choice Initiative," and election officials hope to receive nearly double that number by the time the Prop A election ends at 9 p.m. March 21, said Deputy City Clerk Beth Sanchez.

The final tally is set to surpass the 14,869 votes cast in the City's last special election in April 1999, when Mayor Richard Bloom won a seat on the City Council, and could rival the 20,635 votes cast in a special election in June 1994, according to City records.

More than 56,000 ballots were mailed out to registered voters last month in the hotly contested ballot initiative that would require the consent of the owner of a single family home before it can be designated a landmark or included in a historic district.

The City's election consultant predicts that the flood of mail in ballots will subside before a surge in the final days of the election, Sanchez said.

Voter turnout is typically higher in mail elections than in those that require voters to go to the polls, Sanchez said. General elections where local initiatives are usually consolidated on county ballots also have higher turnouts, especially in Santa Monica, she said.

A mail-in vote, such as the one on Prop A, makes sense for a stand-alone election where it's harder to get voters' attention, Sanchez said.

Prop A qualified for a special election when proponents delivered the signatures of nearly 11,000 registered voters last year. The City Council then voted in December to place the initiative on a special election ballot, rather than adopt the measure.

About $110,000 was budgeted for the mail-in election, Sanchez said, adding that the cost is about the same as when voters go to the polls. What is saved in the cost of staffing the precincts is spent in the extra postage required to mail out and receive ballots (the City pays the postage when voters return their ballots by mail).

Though this is Santa Monica's first mail-in election, the process is similar to absentee voting, Sanchez said. She added that the City has received some complaints or inquiries from voters who usually go to the polls, but those haven't been out of the ordinary.

"It's just a new process for some people," Sanchez said. "They don't have an understanding of it" if they're not an absentee voter.

Sanchez highlighted some typical problems her office has encountered with mail-in ballots -- voters not signing the envelope as required, spouses switching envelopes and voters sometimes inadvertently checking the "spoiled" box on the envelope that generates a request for a second ballot.

A ballot that arrives without the required signature on the envelope won't be counted, Sanchez said. The City typically returns the ballot to the voter requesting a signature and incurs all postage costs of sending a ballot back and forth.

The City Clerk's office is working around the clock to collect and count ballots, about 12 to 15 cumulative hours a day, seven days a week, Sanchez said. All 12 of the office's employees and two temporary workers work at some point during the day on the ballots received. Everyone works exclusively on the election after 5:30 p.m. when City Hall closes.

Workers pick up the ballots from a special election post office box in the afternoon. The ballots are then alphabetized and scanned into an absentee voting program. The absentee report is generated and emailed to the proponents and opponents of the measure.

The signatures on the envelopes are then verified against the County Registrar-Recorder's voter database. All verified envelopes are placed in a vault until 1 to 2 days prior to the election, when they will be opened and separated from the ballots.

The ballots will be arranged in precinct order for counting at 9:00 p.m. on election night, March 21, 2003, in the City Council Chamber.

Sanchez said her office also goes out to the Farmers Markets or the Pier and other public arenas to remind people to vote. They pass out fliers and distribute favors that include small blue plastic cups, pencils and self-stick notepads all emblazoned with the slogan, "Don't miss the boat, Mail in your vote."

Judging from the turnout so far, voters are responding, Sanchez said.