Turnout for L.A. Election Heading for Record Low

Los Angeles headed for a new low in the turnout of voters Tuesday as only a fraction of the electorate trickled to polls to cast ballots in races for the City Council, Board of Education and Community Colleges Board.

As of 5 p.m., with just three hours till poll closing, an estimated 5.4% of the city’s 1.8 million registered voters had cast their ballots, compared to 12.9% by that time in 1985 and 18.2% in 1981.

The voter turnout varied from precinct to precinct. The only issue on the ballot citywide was the election of two new members to the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

“I think that’s why people are predicting a much lower turnout, because there are no major citywide issues like a mayor’s race,” said Mike Carey, the city clerk’s executive officer.

Among other contests to be decided were a runoff in the city’s 7th Councilmanic District, two seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education, a mayoral race in Compton, council and school board seats in Inglewood and school finance issues.

In Orange County, voters were to decide a cityhood proposal for the community of Laguna Hills, about 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Voter turnout was not estimated by election officials in Orange and Los Angeles counties, election officials said.

About 3.6 million voters are registered in Los Angeles County, and about 29,700 Orange County voters were eligible to vote on the Laguna Hills cityhood issue.

In Los Angeles’ 7th Councilmanic District, officials with challenger Lyle Hall’s campaign openly worried that voter apathy would derail their union-backed get-out-the-vote efforts.

“We have predicted 12% and prayed that it would not be 8%,” said Bobi Johnson, a Hall spokeswoman. “We’re faced with a 6 p.m. poll closing, in effect, because people are going to go home to watch the Lakers’ first playoff game.”

Hall, 49, a city fire captain and former firefighters union president, is challenging incumbent Ernani Bernardi, 77, an irascible, 28-year council veteran, to represent the northeastern San Fernando Valley.

Hall forced Bernardi into a runoff after Bernardi failed to win a majority in the April 11 primary election. Bernardi gathered support from minority leaders, while Hall obtained endorsements from several prominent Democrats, including former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., now state Democratic Party chairman.

In the Los Angeles school board race, challenger Jerry Horowitz, a 56-year-old junior high school principal, sought to unseat incumbent Julie Korenstein, 45, who had strong backing from the teachers union.

United Teachers-Los Angeles also supported challenger Mark Slavkin, 27, an aide to county Supervisor Ed Edelman, in a bid to unseat incumbent Alan Gershman, 49.

In the race for the Community College Board, candidates Rose Ochi and Althea Baker received financial and staff support from the American Federation of Teachers College Guild and Democratic Party regulars.

None of the four candidates competing for the two open seats was an incumbent. The board oversees operations concerning the district’s nine campuses and 105,000 students.

Ochi, 54, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, was running against Pat Owens, 54, an auto shop teacher and student recruiter at Trade-Tech College.

Baker, 39, a union organizer and Mission College counselor, faced Patricia Hollingsworth, 42, a language arts professor at Trade-Tech who nearly beat Wallace Knox in a 1987 board runoff.

A ballot measure before voters in Orange County would create the city of Laguna Hills.

In Compton, incumbent Mayor Walter Tucker, 64, a dentist, was running for reelection against challenger Everson Esters, 37, who describes himself as a political consultant and entrepreneur.

Voters in Compton, a city of more than 81,000 about 11 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, also cast ballots in the 3rd Councilmanic District. Incumbent Robert Adams, 57, a mortician, faced Bernice Woods, a member of the Compton Board of Education. Former City Councilman Floyd Jones, 47, was waging a write-in campaign.

In Inglewood, Thomasina Reed was challenging a dead woman--Caroline Coleman--for a seat on the school board. Incumbent Coleman was forced into a runoff in the spring primary but died before the runoff. Her supporters campaigned hard for her in hopes of forcing another election.

Inglewood voters were also to choose two members of the City Council.

A special tax election, Measure A, was on ballots in South Pasadena. Voters were asked to authorize a tax of $98 or less on every parcel of land for each of the next five years. Proceeds would by used to improve education in the South Pasadena Unified School District.

In Lancaster, a bond issue, Measure K, was placed on ballots for voters in the Westside Union School District. Voters were asked to approve a bonded indebtedness of $8.5 million, at a rate not exceeding 12% annually, to raise funding for the renovation and construction of new school buildings.

Both the South Pasadena and the Lancaster measures required a two-thirds majority for approval.