In the City of Santa Clarita general municipal election held April 8, 2008 there were 14,220 votes cast, 9905 of which were absentee. There were 82,253 registered voters. This was a turnout on only 17.3% and only 4,315 votes were cast at polling places. What did it cost the city to conduct the election?

The general election held November 5, 2008 contained a local school issue, Measure SA. The results were 45,829 yes and 30,049 no for a total of 75,878 votes cast. Not knowing the number of registered voters for this election, if we use the number from April 8, 2008 (82,253) that would equate to a 92.2% of the electorate voting on this local measure. Yes, you can say this was a historic election but 75,878 voters cared enough to cast a vote on a local issue.

This begs the question, why do we hold our local election in April? It would certainly be more cost effective to move the date to coincide with the general election held in November. The more obvious benefit would be increased voter participation.

View historical election data: http://www.votesantaclarita.com/pdfs/2008/HistoricalResults.pdf