Yucca Valley, Ca,- In an effort to save money for the Special Election the Town Council accepted Staff’s recommendation to conduct the first all Mail-in election. Originally guesstimated by Staff to cost $36,000.00, the Registrar of Voters has an estimated cost of $46,000.00. Resolution-Stamp page 49: link
This election was called to fill the vacated seated of Isaac Hagerman who he quit because he was NOT going to rotate into the Mayor’s place. While I do not believe he quit in a vacuum with no one aware of his decision, I question the timing of the Hagerman announcement not allowing his seat to be filled at the November 2012 election. The result is the cost to our town of over $46,000.00, which would have paid for two years of Concerts in the Park or funded the Swim Program for our children.
Today the San Bernardino Registrar of Voters will certify the election results and I will have the last count in a future post. If you would like to verify your ballot was received, please go to this link and fill out the information asking for your residence address and date of birth. I tracked two ballots that were deliberately dropped off at separate locations, Town Hall and the Yucca Valley Library, and verified they were received.
Here is the link to confirm your Mail-in ballot was received. link
Was voting by All Mail-in Ballot a success?You betcha! Bob Leone’s percentage of win as of the last update, shows he has earned 46.89% of the votes!
Looking at the last election in November 2012 to elect two Yucca Valley Councilmen to two seats, without any opponents on the ballot:
Councilman George Huntington won with 46.22 % of the votes- No opponent on ballot
Councilman Robert Lombardo won with 53.78% of the votes- No opponent on ballot
Mary Lombardo won her seat on the College Board with only 22.66% of the votes
HDWD Bob Stadum re-elected with only 33.23%
HDWD Sarann Grahm re-elected with only 38.11%
Tim Humphreville O votes.
2012 Election results: link
Oh yes, let’s include Measure U….
NO 51.73%
YES 48.27%
Margo Sturges Author link
Why so costly? When we were investigating the cost of a special election in La Quinta the high estimate was about $3.50 per registered voter and we had at that time about 15,000 registered voters. And, if we had a mail-in with only one drop box (I believe) the cost was lower, less than $3~…here in Riverside County. I would think it would be about the same cost there…and how many registered voters do you have anyway?
@ LindaG- There are 9860 registered voters in Yucca Valley. 11 Districts. Population 20,700. Average income $35,000. Town Manager earning $293,000 pay package. Have you been to Yucca Valley before? Just wondering….;)
…that’s a pretty pricey election…almost $5 per voter. Guess I better get an update from our ROV for current costs…we always have our eyes on a recall/new election…unfortunately, we would probably get the same council with a different face.
I haven’t visited in many years. Went up there antique shopping a couple of times. I will have to come up again soon as I am finding there certainly are a lot of interesting people there. I managed the We The People legal document service in Palm Desert and I had so many customers from YV and TP and JT I even thought of opening a branch there….( but then the entire franchise went BK!) So many of us are grappling with the same city issues, especially the fact that we are completely excluded from the political process in our own little town…what happens to seemingly good people after they get elected, anyway?…I guess they are just good liars and we are easy pickins…I don’t know.
Our statistics in La Quinta are 37,000 population, not Districted, average income I believe about $45,000…City Manager/Frankie around $200,000++, they reduced the pay when Frankie came on board…of course, he is eating into our general fund by handing out no-bid consulting contracts to all his cronies from RSG who can no longer dip into the taxpayers RDA pocket.
Anywho, I will come up there to look around in the near future….