After listening to weeks of predictions, and then accusations, that loyalists to Prof. Kelly Kent bullet voted to give her a perceived advantage in last week’s School Board race, a well-known Kent voter said “Whoa!”
Peeved at the implication that his side somehow gained an unfair advantage over the team of Anne Burke and Scott McVarish, the anonymous critic fired back hard.
The record shows that Dr. Kent and Ms. Burke attracted the most votes to win undisputed election to the School Board.
“It may not be called bullet voting, but that is what Anne and Scott tried to force on the other side,” he charged of the way they presented themselves as a complementary/inseparable team for the two open seats on the Board.
“They said ‘Take us both, period. We are together. Vote only for us.’ That was their message.
“I ask you, how is this different from people on the other side who said ‘We want Kelly. Only Kelly. Vote only for Kelly’?”
Now he turned to a new line of challenging.
“We are going to hear forever that bullet voting cost the election, that United Parents of Culver City is powerful and all that stuff,” the critic said. “UPCC was part of the victorious Steve Levin-Sue Robins campaigns a couple years ago. UPCC took full credit for that, especially for turning out the parent vote although the numbers were lower than earlier years.
“I don’t think UPCC won that election. Karlo Silbiger lost it. He angered so many people – parents hated him, many teachers did, too — that voters came out to back the other two. So much hate was directed against Karlo that it was a perfect storm for the UPCC and they took full credit.
“But,” he added, “I don’t think they brought in that many new voters because the numbers did not add up.
“So now when the UPCC puts their two candidates out there, this powerful new organization, and they tell you ‘vote only for these two candidates – don’t consider voting for Anne and Kelly or for Scott and Kelly because Anne and Scott are going to be together for all time’ – it really is a form of bullet voting.”
