If the mother of all events is a spectacular deal, Culver City’s School Board election yesterday must have been the father of all voter turnouts.
Those rootin’, tootin’, all fired-up, all het-up critics of the School District and the School Board truly showed the community how they perform when they are burnt up.
Something like 21 of every 22 registered voters in Culver City stayed home yesterday.
About 95 percent of registered voters thumbed their noses at an attractive list of candidates.
Do they even need to hold elections in Culver City anymore?
Taking a Risk
Why risk venturing off one’s property, heightening the chance of being struck by a runaway hippopotamus storming through the wild streets of this normally staid community?
The much-talked-about unrest among parents with certain school issues appears to be either bogus or exaggerated.
When the vanishing protestors had a chance to make a statement at the polls, they resisted the temptation.
Where Are the Crowds?
The loudest critics of the School District are unable to attract a critical mass of followers.
They must, in fact, be loners. They plainly represent no one beyond themselves.
If the voters are loners, some candidates are very close to each other.
For possibly the first time in Culver City history, two neighbors ran for the School Board. Only one property separates the homes of Roger Maxwell and Mike Eskridge.
Keeping up with the Shapiros
Mim Shapiro, one of the community’s legendary activists, was out making the rounds of her favorite candidates last night in the company of her husband Hank. The Shapiros started at the Eskridges, where the candidate was surrounded by his family.
Even though they are octogenarians, the Shapiros needed only a flash of time to flit down the sidewalk to the brightly lighted Maxwell home. When they arrived, the candidate was holding court for a bevy of friends, encircled by the latest technology and one giant display screen.
Adjusted Strategy
Mr. Maxwell, who lost a bizarre marble draw in his last race, was destined to finish out of the money in third place, although the finish was not yet in sight when he was speaking. “I worked a lot harder this time,” he said. “I did a lot more walking, and I knocked on more doors. I was pretty selective, though.”
The delicious spread in mid-kitchen of the Maxwells was so generous it would have satisfied the cravings of every Culver City voter, with one round left over for all of the non-voters.
Deborah Weinrauch, founder of Friends of Culver City Animals, topped the visitor list along with City Council candidate Mehaul O’Leary, Darrell and Amy Cherness of the Culver City Democratic Club and their almost two-year-old daughter.
Falloff in Blair Hills
For more than half a century, the Shapiros have been leaders of the exemplarily active Blair Hills community, which, it turns out, has slowed considerably.
Of the more than 400 registered voters in Blair Hills, many must have been vacationing in Peoria for the day. By the time Mrs. Shapiro arrived to cast her ballot at 5:45, a little more than two hours before closing, she was only the 32nd voter. Mr. Shapiro voted earlier, at 8:30 a.m., and he was only the seventh to cast a ballot.
That seemed to be the storyline throughout the neighborhoods.
Changing Polling Places
Mrs. Shapiro was among a colony of frustrated voters who criticized the city for moving away from a tradition of designating schools as precincts and substituting lesser known venues.
Madeline Ehrlich of Sunkist Park was unhappy with the choice of the Rotary Plaza, as was former City Councilman Richard Marcus. Nearby parking is severely limited, they said. Venice attorney Anthony Parascandola criticized Fox Hills for using a precinct that was “hidden away in the basement of a security building.”
He said he and his wife circled the neighborhood trying to identify the building.
Boredom Was a Threat
The light voter traffic at City Hall left a staff of veteran precinct workers wondering how they were going to pass the day. Thirteen hundred voters were registered. After eight hours, precinct worker Margaret Fredericks reported, 61 had voted.
Her colleague Harry Wells and Dep. City Clerk Ela Valladares said that the relaxation of absentee voting in recent years, making it more convenient to vote, should have increased voting traffic. But it hasn’t worked that way.
Whether it is the “laziness” that Mr. Marcus believes is at the bottom of community disinterest, or another explanation, the safest place in Culver City on Election Day is a polling place.
Entertaining Guests
Unfortunately, Ms. Fredericks, Mr. Wells and the rest of the precinct staff — John McCarthy, a 10-year poll worker veteran, his wife Kathleen, Anna Timm and Barbara Nesmith — had plenty of time to entertain a mid-afternoon visitor.
Not one new voter was in sight.
