In West Hollywood, Yeltsin Wins a Vote of Confidence

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

Last October, 19-year-old Elina Shendelman, with her parents, said goodby to Moscow and to the chance that her first vote would fall into a Russian ballot box.

But on Sunday it did--along with the votes of more than 200 other Russian emigres in the Los Angeles area who turned out, most of them apparently to support Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, for an unprecedented voting arrangement. The unexpected turnout swamped the tiny quarters of West Hollywood’s Russian Community Center, resulting in 45-minute waits for the chance to sit down with Russian consular officials to mark four one-question ballots.

It was the first time that Russian emigres, many of whom fled their homeland out of fear, have been given the chance to vote in an election back home. Some predicted little interest.

But voters clutching the crimson Soviet passports that allowed them to vote had lined up on Santa Monica Boulevard even before the office opened. By midmorning, the scene was chaotic. The entrance corridor was packed with everyone from war veterans to a movie star who defected eight years ago. The consular officer in charge steered the mostly elderly voters inside, where workers registered them.

There were no voting booths; some people had to huddle around a file cabinet to mark their decisions on Yeltsin, on his economic reforms and on early presidential and parliamentary elections. The consular representatives plan to fly the ballots to the San Francisco consulate, count them and wire the results to Moscow.

“It is Yeltsin who can lead us to the beginning of our democracy,” said Anna Gergel, 27, wearing the sky-blue Garfield T-shirt she bought so she would fit in when she came to the United States from Moscow four months ago.

Cynicism had its place amid the good cheer. Some voters said the unusual chance to vote was probably a ploy to find Yeltsin votes among people who detest the old-style communism that his parliamentary foes represent.

But that didn’t stop them from turning out in numbers--officials estimated nearly 200 people had voted by noon--that surprised organizers.

Mary Deych had a theory. She tapped her chest and pointed to the distance. “Maybe heart in Russia,” she said.