Less Voters Turnout in Lynwood for 2012 General Election than 2008

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Almost 11,000 Lynwood voters came out to the polls for Tuesday's general election, accounting for 46.6 percent of eligible registered voters in the city, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office. 

The county office counted 10,765 ballots cast, but the number can increase due to the provisional and vote-by-mail ballots yet to be counted by election officials. 

However, the amount of ballots cast was significantly lower than 2008's general election, which saw the presidential election between Barack Obama and John McCain as well as hot-button propositions such as the same-sex marriage measure.

This November, voters were faced with many tax-related measures, including two conflicting and arguably important education-funding measures that would require an increase of taxes to help fund K-12 schools, community colleges, CSUs and UC schools. 

Lynwood also faced a . Measure K would need a 55 percent voter approval, which the county has not confirmed yet. 

In the previous general election, 14,706 ballots were cast in light of having only 19,548 residents registered. During this general election 23,093 residents were registered. 

"I can only attribute the decrease to voter apathy, and lack of trust in government," said Councilwoman Aide Castro.

For Castro, not voting tends to become the norm when voters feel their vote won't make a difference.

Yet election officials say the chance to vote for presidents is still a big reason for people to go out to vote.

"Across the board, when it comes to general elections, or presidential elections, there is always a massive turnout," said Talyssa Gonzales of the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office.

"But the turnout for [general election in] 2008 was incomparable on its own," she said. 

However, long-time pollworker Teresa Marti noticed the high number of voters during Tuesday's elections.

"I saw more voters on Tuesday then in 2008. I even mentioned to the other pollworkers that i had never had such a high turn out," said Marti, a Lynwood resident. 

Marti saw her polling place extremely busy all day, also noticing a lot more voters this November compared to June, when she also served as a poll worker. 

According to county data, the amount of ballots cast increased about 35 percent compared to June's primary election, which saw only 2,553 voters, 11.36 percent registrants, come out to vote.

In addition, the amount of registered voters also increased by about three percent, with 620 more persons added to the primary's list of 22,473 registered voters.  

The final numbers in ballots cast will be announced by the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office no later than Dec. 5. 

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