Absentee Ballot Numbers Way Up From 2000

Registrars across California are receiving a sharply higher number of absentee ballots than four years ago -- a further indicator of interest in the presidential campaigns, a Times survey of the 15 largest counties found.

With a week to go before Tuesday’s election, about 3.5 million absentee ballots had been requested in the 15 counties, and about 29% had already been returned, according to the survey, conducted by The Times’ polling department.

Four years ago, roughly 2.2 million absentee ballots had been requested, and about 22% of those had been returned by the same point.

The largest number of absentee ballots this year was in Los Angeles County, where about 289,000 had been returned as of Monday, compared with just under 180,000 at the same point four years ago.

“The emotional intensity of feeling in this election is probably higher than any time since the 1968 election,” said Curtis Gans, director of the Washington-based Committee for the Study of the American Electorate.

In 2000, absentee ballots made up about a quarter of California’s total turnout. Generally, they do not favor one party over another.

“The numbers reflect a real energy out there this year,” said Susan Pinkus, the Times’ polling director. “County clerks are inundated with requests for absentee ballots and working overtime to count them.”

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Broadcaster Extends Free Ads to Democrats

A California broadcaster announced Tuesday he would give Democrats $125,000 worth of free political advertising -- hours after Democrats vowed to launch an investigation and advertising boycott because he had given free airtime to Republicans.

Harry J. Pappas, chief executive of Pappas Telecasting Companies in Visalia, said he would donate $25,000 worth of airtime each to Democratic central committees in Santa Clara, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Sacramento and San Francisco counties for use on a Spanish-language television station that covers those areas.

The announcement came as Democrats cried foul and urged businesses to boycott Pappas’ chain because he donated $325,000 in advertising to Republican committees in 13 counties, most in the Central Valley and all in areas where Republicans and Democrats are locked in tight Assembly races.

Top Democratic leaders called Tuesday for an investigation of the GOP donation and said they would take their case to the Federal Communications Commission and demand equal time, regardless of Pappas’ decision to donate to the Democrats.

Broadcast licensing experts said use of the donated airtime should trigger equal amounts of free advertising for Democratic and third-party candidates.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project in Washington, D.C., said he had never seen a broadcaster use stations to make a political contribution before.

“My reading of the law is that this is an in-kind contribution ... and (passing) it through a committee does not change the fact that this is a donation of airtime intended for candidates,” he said.

State law limits individual donations to statewide and legislative candidates to $3,200, but county political committees can accept $26,600. The county committees can then donate unlimited amounts to candidates.

Pappas’ attorney, Brian Hildreth, denied that Pappas -- a donor to Republican candidates in the past -- offered the Democrats free airtime under pressure. He called Pappas “someone who appreciates political discourse; he appreciates hearing both sides of the story.”

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Wal-Mart Attacks Healthcare Measure

Angry at being singled out in the campaign to require California employers to provide health insurance, Wal-Mart on Tuesday announced it was donating $500,000 to defeat Proposition 72.

The donation -- the retailer’s first for this proposition -- came after supporters of the proposition began television advertisements charging that the company’s insurance benefits are so paltry that California taxpayers end up paying $32 million a year to provide healthcare to employees of the company.

“The ads attempt to make Wal-Mart a scapegoat, claiming we do not provide affordable healthcare,” said Cynthia Lin, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. “These are outright lies, and voters deserve far better than that.”

The proposition’s supporters escalated their attacks Tuesday, arranging a conference call for reporters in which two former Wal-Mart employees said they had been on public assistance while working there.

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Gov.’s Team Lends Cachet to GOP Events

As the election nears, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s senior aides and Cabinet members are headlining fundraising events for Republican candidates, a practice discouraged by the previous administration to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Assembly candidate Paul Betancourt’s campaign invited donors to “a dinner with Mike Chrisman,” the governor’s Resources secretary. The Oct. 18 event carried a price tag of $1,200 for those buying two tables of 10.

Republican Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, locked in one of the closest legislative races this season, had planned a fundraising event featuring what the invitation described as “very special guest Richard Costigan” -- the governor’s legislative secretary. Horton’s campaign later canceled the luncheon, citing a scheduling conflict.

Margita Thompson, the governor’s spokeswoman, said the governor’s policy was that officials enjoy a 1st Amendment right to attend such fundraisers. But their titles should not be mentioned, she said. The reason, she said, was “that would be in an official capacity to be doing something.”

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Foes of Changing 3-Strikes Boost Efforts

Opponents of Proposition 66, the measure to significantly change the state’s three-strikes sentencing law, have stepped up their efforts.

On Tuesday, the state prison guard’s union contributed an additional $500,000 to the campaign against the proposition, and Gov. Schwarzenegger released two statewide television commercials urging voters to defeat it.

In the ads, Schwarzenegger, whose California Recovery Team gave more than $1 million to fight the measure this week, says that if the measure passes, “dangerous criminals will be released from prison. Child molesters. Rapists. Murderers.”

Supporters of Proposition 66 denounced the governor’s statements as “bogus.”

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Times staff writers Louis Sahagun, Nancy Vogel, Peter Nicholas, Jordan Rau and Megan Garvey contributed to this report.