Having only three candidates running for two open seats for the School Board last week is one of the best scenarios in looking at the local electorate’s use of bullet voting. If there had been a fourth viable candidate, it would have clouded the observations, but, fortunately, this election we had only three candidates from which to choose, even though two were loosely running as a slate.
Prof. Kelly Kent, who lives in East Culver City, is a newcomer to Culver City’s politics. East Culver City just happens to be Council-member Megan Salhi Wells’s home territory. There is little doubt that Ms. Salhi Wells’s mentorship of her neighbor was instrumental in Dr. Kent’s sweeping victory.
The votes received by Dr. Kent in the two East Culver City precincts, the first and third, were more than Anne Burke and Scott McVarish combined. Oddly, this unique voting pattern only occurred in these two precincts.
Locally, citizens voted, not for the best team, but mostly for the candidate they wanted to see on the Board. It still would have taken two separate votes to elect the United Parents of Culver City slate.
It is obvious, by the vote count, most voters did not totally support the UPCC slate and split their votes because Ms. Burke received 15 percent more votes than her running mate, Mr. McVarish.
But by just looking at the election returns, no matter who received the most benefit from this election’s city-wide bullet voting, the results clearly show that this race was the most bullet-riddled election since Karlo Silbiger’s first place finish in the 2009 and maybe, ever in the history of Culver City.
