2017 Los Angeles Elections (Today)

[KingSweden]

12.5% turnout is incredibly pathetic, especially since LA is a world city. How does the voters get this apathetic? Is the Mayor just very weak or has he done nothing and therefore hasn't been known for anything? Or Is the Angeleno culture just very apolitical?

Also, why hasn't the LA gov't moved elections to November (particularly November in Presidential elections years)? This seems so logical and would be such an obvious boost in interest

They are moving the elections to the November of midterm years, aligning with CA statewide elections. I imagine for precisely this reason. LA has a pretty weak mayor, too

[pikachu]

Not to defend voter apathy too much, but it's not surprising that a primary election in March of an off-year would have extremely low turnout. Most nonpolitical people I know didn't even know there was an election yesterday.

[Babeuf]

Have all the ballots been counted or are there still mail-in ballots left? Could make a difference in whether Measure H hangs on.

[Mike Thick]

Yeah, low turnout isn't especially surprising. Immediately after polls closed, some journalists in my Twitter were projecting it to be about eight percent -- so I suppose that this was a pleasant surprise, in a perverse way

[MAINEiac4434]

Well the election is in March, five months after we just had a much much much bigger election.

[Suburbia]

Congratulations to Mayor Garcetti. He may be a potential 2020 Democratic candidate. A big city mayor. Second term. However, low voter turnout is not surprising. Did the celebrities vote? Hmm. Most of the Angelenos were probably having fun in the sun.

New York City elections get more attention because NYC is the financial capital of the world and their politicians are more interesting. Garcetti should get his name ID up if he wants to run for president in 2020, or 2024.

[Mike Thick]

Congratulations to Mayor Garcetti. He may be a potential 2020 Democratic candidate. A big city mayor. Second term. However, low voter turnout is not surprising. Did the celebrities vote? Hmm. Most of the Angelenos were probably having fun in the sun.

New York City elections get more attention because NYC is the financial capital of the world and their politicians are more interesting. Garcetti should get his name ID up if he wants to run for president in 2020, or 2024.

Interestingly, Jesse Creed got a fair bit of publicity and money from celebrities. Rather unusual for a city council candidate, even in an entertainment-heavy area like L.A.

Garcetti needs to elevate his profile bigly, and I think he's more likely to go for Governor or Senator first in order to achieve that. But he's someone to watch out for in the future.

[rob in cal]

  Another reason for the lack of coverage and possibly enthusiasm is that California municipal elections are officially non-partisan, so you don't get as much party drama that you do in New York City for instance.