Second in a series.
Re: “Dr. Clarke May Have Cure for Low Voter Turnout”
In his unofficial campaign to grow voter turnout in Culver City by adopting all-mail balloting, Mayor Jim Clarke makes several points:
- “Elections grow more expensive every year.
- “It becomes more difficult to find poll workers.
- “That leads to fewer polling places, and people complain, ‘Gee, I have to drive across town. I don’t have time.’”
Mr. Clarke recalled a bollaxed scenario from several years ago.
“The County does School Board elections for us,” he said while relating a story about clumsy gaffes.
“They ended up doing a couple of things like putting two polling places across from each other on Overland, at the Rotary Plaza and the (Julian Dixon) library. People had to drive four or five miles from either direction to get there.”
Mayor Clarke further recalled that a Blair Hills polling place was at El Marino Language School.
“Another polling place was actually in the city of Los Angeles for a Culver City election,” he remembered.
These are among reasons the mayor wants to strongly realign voting policies.
Mr. Clarke is championing a Sacramento bill by Secretary of State Alex Padilla. that incorporates aspects of voting policies by Oregon and Colorado, two of the most liberated voting outposts.
Mr. Padilla’s Senate Bill 350, Mr. Clarke says, emphasizes “vote centers.
“You have early voting. You can drop off your ballot. You can actually have your ballot printed out for you. So you can go to any place. You are not limited to your precinct. It is all connected to (the network that is) voter registration.
From the mayor’s perspective, present policy is messier. “Now they look you up in the book, you sign and all of that,” said Mr. Clarke.
“Instead, with the Padilla plan, you have a computer terminal, you put in the information. “They bring up the voter record. Ballots are automatically printed out, your eligibility is established and you can vote,
“You can vote at any of these voting stations,” Mr. Clarke said.
“This could be really helpful in Culver City,” the mayor believes.
