Opinions Are All Over the Map

Braving fog, traffic and a generalized sense of apathy, voters turned out in relatively small numbers to cast a ballot for a new mayor Tuesday.

Those who did turn up at the city’s 1,852 precincts brought a range of viewpoints and concerns with them into the voting booths set up in garages, churches, schools and community centers.

Many said they wanted someone new in City Hall, and cited concerns about corruption, or despair at crime, traffic or the city’s educational system.

“I just want to see something different, some fresh blood in the mayor’s office,” said Franklin Mills, 59, a lighting-set technician who cast his ballot for City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa. Mills, who voted in Venice, also expressed concern about Mayor James K. Hahn’s $11-billion modernization plan for Los Angeles International Airport.

Some defended Hahn, lauding his decision to hire William J. Bratton as police chief or his fight to keep the San Fernando Valley from seceding.

“I think he’s a genuine person,” said San Pedro resident Paula Mazzarino, a program specialist for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I would like to see him reelected.”

Across the city, low turnout -- characteristic of off-year municipal elections -- lent many polling places a bereft air. “Turnout is very, very low, low, low,” said Alvivon Hurd, a poll worker at Pico Gardens in Boyle Heights.

“At least we have coffee,” quipped John Termaine, a producer and veteran precinct worker who was steeling himself for a “grueling 15 hours standing” at a narrow North Hollywood cafe-turned-polling-place, where oil paintings by amateur artists lined the walls.

Though some said they were not happy with the candidates they had to choose from, others expressed passion and excitement as they voted.

At a private school on West Pico Boulevard, music teacher Howard Weisel, 75, was among the discontented. He said he voted for Villaraigosa “without a lot of conviction.” He added that he had doubts that any of the candidates could “produce a lot of what they promise.”

And at the far western edge of the city, Lisa Ross, a Woodland Hills voter, said a last-minute flurry of negative campaigning had caused her to have an 11th-hour change of heart.

She walked into her polling place carrying an absentee ballot marked for former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, which she exchanged for a regular one. She would vote for state Sen. Richard Alarcon, she said.

“I always wanted Alarcon, but I thought he was dragging in the polls, and I thought Hertzberg had a better chance of winning. But I hate this smear stuff. And I didn’t hear anything bad come out of Alarcon’s mouth,” she said.

Esperanza Llamas, 65, walked out of her polling place in Boyle Heights with a smile on her face. This year, she said, Villaraigosa “has a chance to win, I hope.”

“He represents Latinos,” the grandmother said in Spanish, adding that she thinks he will improve conditions in the city’s schools.

Erma Grigsby, 69, a retired school nurse, said she was voting for Hertzberg because she liked “what he was saying about traffic.”

“He’s fresh. I wasn’t pleased with Hahn; I wanted some fresh new blood,” she said.

In South Los Angeles, City Councilman Bernard C. Parks’ campaign dispatched five vans to take voters to the polls.

Mayme Clayton, 81, clad in a bright red pants suit and walking with a cane, walked into a polling place on the arm of Parks volunteer driver Charles C. Thomas, 69, who was wearing several Parks campaign pins.

Clayton said she was voting for Parks because she wants to see improvements in public schools and because she was disappointed with Hahn. She voted for Hahn in the last election “because of his daddy,” she added.

Hahn’s father, the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, was beloved in South Los Angeles. In 2001, Hahn captured more than two-thirds of the city’s black voters. But many soured on him after his decision to oppose giving Parks a second term as police chief.

Echoing sentiments of several others, Clayton said Hahn “just doesn’t do things the way his father did.”

Among voters who did not back Hahn, several cited concerns about corruption allegations -- a topic his opponents talked about every chance they could in the months leading up to the election.

At a Goodwill store on Westwood Boulevard, Jake Jacobson, a retired CPA, said he was dubious about Hahn because “the pay-to-play scandal appears to be the true thing.” But he also said he wants “somebody more vibrant” in the mayor’s office.

Jacobson, a Villaraigosa voter, said Hahn is not “dynamic enough. He’s too laid-back.”

William Smith, 79, also had change on his mind.

“I love to vote out the incumbents,” said the retired city purchasing agent, who backed Hertzberg. “I worked for them and know how they are.... Hahn’s always been in the public light. It’s time for him to get out. It’s time for a clean slate.”

All in all, though, “I’m happy with L.A.,” Smith said. “I was born here. My career was here. Trash pickup is unbelievable. They sweep my street every two weeks.”

Some voting problems cropped up at scattered polling places across the city. In Echo Park, at least 20 people expecting to vote at Allesandro Elementary School were turned away, even though the official ballots mailed to their homes listed the site as their polling place. Instead, they were told to go about a mile away.

Barbara Heller, a precinct inspector, said some people said “this has inconvenienced them to the point that they’re not going to be able to vote at all.”

And in West Los Angeles, one precinct station in a private home failed to open on time because the homeowner apparently was not aware that his house was supposed to be a polling place.

Times staff writers Sharon Bernstein, Jessica Garrison, Jennifer Oldham, Jeffrey L. Rabin and David Rosenzweig contributed to this report.