Voters Fill Vacant Assembly Seat Today

Ending a race that has drawn national attention as a referendum on abortion, voters in San Diego and Riverside counties will go to the polls today in a special election to select a new state Assembly member in the 76th District.

After a four-month campaign marked by increasing acrimony in its final days, voters will choose among four candidates--two of them write-ins--to fill the vacancy created by the death last June of Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-Escondido).

Republican Tricia Hunter, a Bonita nurse who finished first in August’s eight-candidate primary, and Democrat Jeannine Correia, a teacher of the retarded from Poway, head the field, which also includes two Republican write-in candidates--Poway businessman Dick Lyles and Lakeside accountant Kirby Bowser.

Voters unsure of where to vote or those who experience other Election Day problems may contact the Registrar of Voters office at 565-5800 for assistance. The 76th District stretches from the South Bay to northeastern San Diego County and into the desert communities of Riverside County.

During the primary, the 76th District contest generated intensive news coverage as one of the first tests of the political fallout from last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision giving the states new powers to regulate abortions. Of the six Republicans in the primary, only Hunter was pro-choice on the volatile abortion issue--a distinction that helped her draw backing from groups that typically support Democrats.

The significance of the abortion issue has been diminished somewhat in the runoff by the fact that Democrat Correia is, like Hunter, pro-choice. However, the write-in candidacy of Lyles, who strongly opposes abortion, has kept the issue alive as a potentially pivotal factor in the outcome.

In a race in which the unusual has been the norm, it perhaps is not surprising that the results of today’s race might not be known until Wednesday because of the write-in ballots, particularly those cast for Lyles, who finished a close second in the primary behind Hunter.

Election officials do not plan to count and verify most of the write-in ballots cast at the polls today until Wednesday, though they will calculate the number of write-ins cast. Therefore, if the number of write-in ballots is greater than the number of votes cast for either Hunter or Correia, the election’s outcome will be uncertain until Wednesday.