ELECTIONS / ABSENTEE BALLOTS : Decline in Requests Reflects Decline in Interest

The number of Ventura County voters requesting absentee ballots has dropped for Tuesday’s primary election, reversing a 16-year trend toward more voting by mail and indicating low voter interest, officials said Friday.

About 34,500 voters have requested absentee ballots and, even though 1,000 more may go out before the election, the total would still fall short of the last primary in June, 1992, county elections chief Bruce Bradley said.

In that election, 36,332 people requested absentee ballots, he said.

Bradley also said at a press conference that about 38% of the county’s 339,356 registered voters are expected to cast ballots in the June 7 primary, a figure comparable with past non-presidential primaries.

Bradley and County Clerk Richard D. Dean said they are not sure why fewer voters are requesting absentee ballots. But Bradley said it mirrors a trend statewide and both blamed voter apathy and a lack of compelling ballot initiatives.

“I’m not sure we have any burning issues this time,” Dean said.

Besides the governor’s primary, Tuesday’s elections include state races for insurance commissioner, superintendent of schools and secretary of state. Races of local interest include two east county supervisorial contests and a costly Superior Court race.

But there are no controversial propositions, such as the school-voucher initiative or high-tax proposals, to motivate voters, Dean said. And Republicans may feel Gov. Pete Wilson will easily win renomination, while Democratic voters are not too excited with their choices, Dean said.

“What brings out voters are hot measures and gubernatorial candidates,” he said.

Partisans had their own analysis for why absentee ballot requests have decreased.

Two years ago in the November general election, when the county issued a record 57,458 absentee ballots, the country “was in a mess,” said Hank Starr, chairman of the county Democratic Central Committee.

The economy was sluggish, crime was rampant and parents everywhere were dissatisfied with the public education system, he said.

President Clinton’s reforms have not been enacted, and people are not sure what to think about all the pending changes, Starr said.

“So there is a sense of ‘Let’s sit this one out and wait and see what happens,’ ” Starr said.

Starr blamed the drop in absentee ballot requests on a decrease in registered Republican voters over the last five months. The Republicans have lost more than 2,000 voters countywide since January, while the Democrats have picked up 93.

Republicans have traditionally been a stronghold of absentee voting, Starr said. But Bob Larkin, the GOP county Central Committee chairman, said the numbers are misleading because his party’s push to register absentee voters will not start until summer.

Larkin had a more philosophical reason for why requests for absentee ballots have dropped. He called voting-by-mail a fad that is falling out of favor.

“There is something almost mystical about going to the polls, seeing your friends’ and neighbors’ faces and closing the curtain behind you to vote,” he said.

“It’s almost like Communion,” said Larkin, who is Catholic.

Whatever the reason, county officials were not expecting the drop.

“I have three fat boxes of postcards we intended to send to people, so I was surprised,” Dean said.

Voting by mail has increased dramatically since 1976, when looser restrictions first allowed voting from home even if going to the polls was not a hardship.

The percentage of absentee voters steadily climbed with each major election until it reached a record high with the general election of 1992. Since then, absentee ballot requests have dropped 26%.

Bradley said that Tuesday’s 38% voter turnout is slightly below the statewide projection of 39.8%. But it is well within the range of the last two gubernatorial primaries, Dean said.

“We were slightly behind the state (in those elections), and we think we will be this time, too,” he said.

The polls at 404 county precincts will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

The Tally

Absentee ballots

Year issued in June primary 1978 8,540 1980 11,930 1982 13,226 1984 15,770 1986 17,570 1988 20,131 1990 26,219 1992 36,332 1994 34,500

Source: Ventura County Elections Division