Though the walk to vote for many students was farther than
usual, polling stations in the Westwood area experienced consistent
voter turnout in Tuesday’s recall election.
“We hardly ever have lines. Usually it just trickles in,
but we have had long lines all day,” said Richard Patricelli,
a field representative for the Los Angeles County Registrar’s
Office who was working at the Tiverton Avenue poll station.
The two other polling stations assigned to students who are
registered in the dorms, on Landfair Avenue and Strathmore Drive,
did not experience long lines, but poll workers in these locations
said constant voter turnout kept the stations moving.
“The last time I worked at a polling station, it was slow
in the beginning and then picked up. This time it started out
fast,” said Brandon Oles, an L.A. County poll worker at the
Hardman Hansen Lounge on Landfair Avenue.
Poll workers at the Strathmore Drive location also reported
increased voter turnout compared to previous recent elections.
“There’s definitely a lot more people voting than
usual. The last time … we had about 200 people who voted all
day,” said Allan Benitez, a precinct coordinator.
The Strathmore polling location reported a turnout of 200 voters
during the first two hours.
Poll workers and state election officials said the increased
turnout was largely due to fewer available precincts.
“It’s been very good, way over than it normally is.
But also the number of people registered in this precinct is more.
… It took in a larger area than normal,” Patricelli
said.
In other parts of the state, voting problems were minimal
despite having 10,000 fewer polling locations than in the 2002
gubernatorial election. Also, 60 percent of registered voters went
to the polls, which was higher than the 50.7 percent in 2002 but
lower than the 71 percent turnout for the 2000 presidential
election.
Overall, many students did not let a longer walking distance get
in the way of casting their ballots.
“I was happy to make the trip because I think that it is
very important that we vote; it’s important that the
students’ voices are heard,” Green said.
Student turnout also increased in this election in comparison
to
previous ones, according to poll workers at the Tiverton
location.
“This was really, really hectic. … There were more
students today, definitely,” said Tiverton poll worker Sam
Garner.
But Lauren Hansen, a fourth-year political science and sociology
student who works with “Rock the Vote” ““ an MTV
organization aiming to increase the number of youth voters ““
expected a higher student turnout.
“We’ve been working really hard to get the youth to
vote, so I thought the polls would be a lot more crowded,”
Hansen said.
The lower number of precincts and the lack of on-campus polling
locations inconvenienced many students living in Sproul Hall,
Sunset Village and De Neve Plaza. They had to vote at the Tiverton
location, nearly a mile away.
“It was definitely a longer walk than in the past,”
said Andy Green, a second-year math economics student who lives in
De Neve Plaza. “In the past we have had locations on campus.
I think it may have disenfranchised students, and I think it would
have been better had we had on-campus locations (at which) to
vote.”
Michael Holtz, a first-year philosophy student and on-campus
resident, said he had difficulty finding the Tiverton location.
“I hadn’t even heard of this street before,”
he said.
Other students who voted in Tuesday’s election said they
had to go to greater lengths than usual to find their assigned
locations; some did not receive poll notifications in the mail
until the day before the election.
“I went on the secretary of state’s Web site and had
to do a polling (place) search,” said Mark Thornton, a
third-year history student and member of CalPIRG.