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USC Campus had the Lowest Amount of Voters in Tuesday's Election
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos
Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos
Tuesday's special election for a vacant state senate seat churned out a mere 6% of registered voters in a district ranging from Silver Lake and Hollywood to South LA and the Westside. Out of nearly 400,000 registered voters, only about 24,000 hit the polls or voted by mail. An LAist analysis of turnout in individual precincts showed that students in USC's dorms had the least interest. 1451 people are registered with an address on campus--bound by Jefferson, Figueroa, Vermont and Exposition--but only four people voted. One of those votes was by mail. That's a 0.2% turnout, the lowest out of all 349 precincts in the district.
This comes as the most focused news attention drawn to the candidates was by the school's own journalism department on NeonTommy.com. Additionally, one of the other only in depth coverage sources for the election was on a bicycle blog that solicited and posted statements from candidates on bike issues. The campus is one of the notable bicycle dense neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Immediately north of campus in North University Park neighborhood, two precincts with USC housing showed a little more participation, albeit still low. One had 3.4% turnout (42 out of 1222 registered voters) and the other had 1.6% (22 of 1380 registered voters), the fourth lowest in all of the district.
Interestingly enough, the precinct with the highest percentage of participating voters was near campus in a single family home neighborhood where mostly full-time residents live. The small few block-sized precinct bound by Adams and Hoover to the southeast had a nearly 30% turnout, or 41 out of 137 registered voters.
Rounding out the top three neighborhoods with the best turnout were precincts in western Culver City (23%) and in the Baldwin Hills Estates neighborhood of Los Angeles (17%).
Back on campus at USC, two of the votes were split for Democrats Curren Price and Mervin Leon Evans. But the campus winner with 50% of the vote was Republican Nachum Shifren, a Rabbi and surfer.
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