Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Clerk Gets Official’s Vote in Slogan Contest
When Bill Watson went home from his job in Santa Ana City Hall on Thursday, he was in what you might call a liquid position.
Watson hadn’t been drinking. He won a $500 award when his slogan was selected to grace--bilingually--hundreds of buttons and posters that will be used in the city’s campaign to register new voters.
“We were planning to take a vacation at the end of the month, and this won’t hurt,” Watson, an account clerk in the city’s Redevelopment Agency, said after he was given four hundred-dollar bills and a pair of fifties.
Watson’s winning slogan was “Government is by choice--Register to vote.”
Watson, of La Habra, said he didn’t think any of the five slogans he submitted had a chance to win. “But there was one I thought was catchier: ‘Don’t register, don’t vote, don’t complain,’ ” he said.
City employees submitted more than 1,000 entries in the contest, which was judged by a committee of department representatives. City Manager David N. Ream selected Watson’s slogan as the winner from a dozen finalists.
Among those passed over:
- Do it in a booth.
- Vote or get off the pot.
- Don’t be a dope, you’ve got to vote.
- Make Santa Ana the top banana: Vote today.
The Santiago Club of Santa Ana donated the $500 award.
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