March 8, 2011

Lakewood City Council election results March 8, 2011

Update March 23, 2011:

I would not consider 14% of registered voters any sort of a "mandate" or a "seal of approval" for the status quo as some politicians like to claim. Voter apathy is a huge problem not just city wide but nationwide as voters tend to have less and less faith in politicians ability to actually solve problems (as opposed to just complain that one level of government is "taking away" "their" tax money.) The 61 percent of the vote that comes in by mail makes one wonder why all elections are not just done via mail. What a waste of time and money.

Following certification of the official vote canvass by the City Clerk, the candidates received these final totals:

Lawrence H. "Larry" Van Nostran, Incumbent: 3402
Jeff Wood, : 2810
Joy Janes, : 2041
Marc Titel, : 1527
Marisa Perez, : 1263

The above totals represent the final tally for the March 8 election, and include all provisional ballots and Vote By Mail ballots turned in to precincts on election day. There are 45,920 registered voters in Lakewood and 6,328 ballots were cast in the March election. Turnout was 14 percent (well 13.78% actually). Turnout percentages are in line with Lakewood's 2005 and 2007 elections. The city is experiencing an all-time high in the overall number of registered voters. 61 percent of residents voted by mail, with 39 percent of residents going to a polling place to cast their vote.

3/8/11:

Unbelievably the Lakewood "incumbent machine" puts Larry VanNostran back into office. We hope our prediction about Larry was wrong. Jeff Wood wins the open seat, clearly benefiting from the "Esquivel effect" (yet more incumbent bias). Sigh. More later on LAAG regarding the results and what they might mean.

The unofficial vote count includes 22 of 22 total precincts reporting at 9:49 p.m. The total number of precincts includes 11 precinct counts of ballots turned in at polling places and 11 precinct counts of vote-by-mail ballots. Results are unofficial until the canvass of the election by the Lakewood City Clerk is completed.

Larry Van Nostran
Incumbent
3293

Joy Janes
Community Consultant
1961

Jeff Wood
Deputy Emergency Manager
2702

Marisa Perez
Environmental Policy Advisor
1200

Marc Titel
Educator/Businessman
1463

The City Clerk's "official canvass" of the March 8 election will contain the late vote-by-mail votes (ballots turned in at the polling places) and provisional ballots verified by the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters.

The official canvass of the March 8 election will be presented to the City Council during the Tuesday, March 22 city council meeting. Following approval of the canvass, two council members will be sworn in that evening.


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