No I’m not talking about the Weiss v. Trutanich run-off for city attorney. In my mailbox yesterday — just two freakin’ days after this last election — I find yet another official sample ballot, this one for the “26th State Senate District Special Primary Election,” scheduled for March 24.
Owing to how only a whopping 15% of those voters registered bothered to cast ballots Tuesday, I get the feeling this race might literally be decided by one of the eight candidates’ mothers.
Seeing as these election things cost MONEY, which my city/county/state is in reeeeeeeeally short supply of right now, and seeing how it is taking place a mere 21 days after the last one, here’s what I wanna know: Why the hell wasn’t this election combined with the one we just had. Sure, there are no doubt chapter-and-verse regulations and rules that clearly lay out the logical and bureaucratic reasons for keeping the two ballots inefficiently separate, but I’ll tell ya: as a diehard chronic and habitual voter it’s getting dangerously close to the point where you can stick a fork in me because I. Am. Done.
I’m also guessing that if none of this field pull a majority of the votes, we’ll have yet another election between the top two finishers — and it’ll probably be three weeks to the day after the city attorney run-off.
For answers I went to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s website at lavote.net and clicked on the 26th State Senate District Special Primary Election – Fact Sheet. Not surprisingly I got their equivalent of 404 error — which I predict will be the number of voters who go to the polls March 24.
UPDATE: Looks like the County Registrar fixed the link. Turns out the state senate elections gonna cost an estimated $2.2 million, but the good news any run-off vote will take place May 19, the same date scheduled for the City Attorney and 5th District council seats.
Its all an effort to stimulate the economy by employing poll-workers one election at a time…