Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Burbank Polling Place/Joaquin Miller Elementary School
California voters didn’t just reject five of the propositions championed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other legislators as fixes for the financially-strapped state budget, they slammed them to the mat in yesterday’s special election. Propositions 1A through 1E were soundly defeated by huge margins.
STATEWIDE RESULTS
Proposition 1A “Rainy Day” Budget Stabilization Fund 34.1% Yes 65.9% No
Proposition 1B Education Funding Payment Plan 37.4% Yes 62.6% No
Proposition 1C Lottery Modernization Act 35.4% Yes 64.6% No
Proposition 1D Children’s Services Fund 34.2% Yes 65.8% No
Proposition 1E Mental Health Funding Temporary Reallocation 33.6% Yes 66.4% No
The only measure passed by the voters yesterday is 1F, which would prevent state officials from pocketing salary increases in years when there’s a budget deficit. That measure won by a landslide statewide, 73.9% Yes to 26.1% No. In Los Angeles County, voters overwhelmingly supported the measure by more than two-to-one with 69 % Yes to 31% No.
Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove – Burbank City Hall
When I voted at Joaquin Miller Elementary Tuesday afternoon, I saw mostly grim faced voters in line and a couple of harried pollworkers trying to process them. Later, I walked into Burbank City Hall for a city council meeting and found a table of smiling and cheerful pollworkers. The voters here didn’t look any happier about the task at hand, but the pollworkers were in a great mood, even though most of them had been on the job since early that morning.
Election Inspector, Silva Kechichian, told me voters had come in a “steady” trickle all day long. Kerchichian rated the turnout “good” for a special election. She admitted Tuesday’s turnout was nothing like the long lines and crowds that showed up for last November’s presidential election.
Burbank city hall pollworkers, Lilian Avila, Narcisco Dulao, Melina Alaka, and high school junior Brooke Johnson expressed excitement about the voting process and their part in it. They said they want to do it all again –together– the next election. Three cheers for the pollworkers!
