2-Day Vote Gets Off to Slow Start

On the first day of Santa Monica’s historic weekend election, a handful of voters trickled into a City Hall polling place past a crowd of some 200 homeless people waiting patiently outside for their free lunches.

Restless poll workers with nothing better to do Saturday watched television at one polling place next to a bustling farmers market. At another polling place inside a coffeehouse, even the lure of free gourmet coffee wasn’t enough to dramatically turn up the turnout.

Such were the lackluster early results of Santa Monica’s effort to drum up more votes from its 55,000 registered voters in California’s first two-day weekend election.

“It’s a good idea, but some people have other plans, like to spend time with their kids,” said Allen Wharton, 78, after casting his ballot at a Starbucks polling place--where 1,700 registered voters were listed, but fewer than 20 votes an hour were coming in.

City officials, nevertheless, were not discouraged.

“It’s quiet now, but we have 48 hours to do it,” said Santa Monica City Clerk Maria M. Stewart. “Maybe [the voters] are saving their Saturday to do the normal household chores and saying they still have time to vote tomorrow.”

California officials say they will be closely monitoring the election to see if the two-day event really does lure more voters.

The election will determine who among seven candidates will take over the remaining two years of the term held by former Councilwoman Asha Greenberg, who resigned last year because she moved out of the city.

The candidates are attorney Richard Bloom, community planner Susan Cloke, project manager Frank Juarez, writer Donald Gray, public health physician Peter Kerndt and teachers Jon Stevens and Marc Sanschagrin.

Voters will also decide whether to approve an initiative that protects apartment renters from unlawful evictions, a sensitive issue in a city whose 20-year-old rent control ordinance has been eroded recently by state laws. Since Jan. 1, landlords in Santa Monica have been able to raise a unit’s rent whenever a tenant moves out--the “vacancy decontrol” that they lost when voters imposed rent control in 1979.

Ballots cast Saturday will be placed in a vault in the city clerk’s office and guarded until Sunday’s ballots are completed and delivered there for counting.

As many as 4,500 absentee ballots are expected to be included in the count.

City Councilman Michael Feinstein came up with the idea of holding a weekend election to boost turnout.

“It’s an opportunity for people to vote at a time when they are not barred by a hectic workday schedule,” he said.

Some disagree, arguing that many voters may skip casting ballots on the weekend to pursue leisure activities.

“I think this is totally bogus,” said John Bergland, a 14-year resident who voted at a Starbucks. “I have other things to do.”

But not far away, George Bernota and Rachel Kelley, both movie special effects artists, offered a different opinion after voting at the Legal Grind, a coffee shop.

“This is great,” Kelley said. “I work far away from where I vote, so I’m usually in a frantic state trying to get to the polls before they close.”

Saturday was a day when Kelley and Bernota said they had hoped to talk about their upcoming wedding. After voting, they started planning over a cup of free coffee.