Turnout in the March 7 mayoral election in Los Angeles was not a record low after all, although it came close — and did break a record for the highest share of reelection votes won by any L.A. mayor in over a century.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a final tally found that voter turnout was at 20%, just above the record low, which was 17.9 percent in 2008 when former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was re-elected. However, the Times points out that “Eric Garcetti won reelection with more than 81% of the vote, a bigger share than any other L.A. mayor has won in more than 100 years.”
Still, only 407,147 ballots were reportedly cast in a city with over 2 million registered voters.
Previously, the Times, citing Election Day estimates, had reported that only 11.45 percent of Los Angeles County’s registered voters turned up at the polls.
California experienced the lowest voter turnout in its history in the November 2014 general election. Just 18.3 percent of voters were registered at the time. That, in turn, was the lowest turnout the Golden State has experienced overall since November 5, 1946.
Voter turnout in L.A. was at its highest in 1969, when Mayor Tom Bradley ran to become the city’s first black mayor. That year, voter turnout peaked at 76 percent.
Breitbart News previously noted that “of the two major measures on the ballot, Measures H and S, only one passed. Measure H will raise sales taxes by another 0.25% and the funding will ostensibly go towards addressing L.A.’s homeless population.
“Measure S, which proposed a two-year moratorium in high-end real estate developments, failed.”
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