Janine Marnien
Voters will get to vote for only one candidate at this year's
Crescenta Valley Town Council election, members have decided.
The decision was made at a special meeting Thursday, during which
council members present also decided to extend polling hours and keep
absentee ballots, after the election committee had recommended
eliminating them.
"There's no real way to verify the absentee ballots," committee
member Sharon Raghavachary said at the meeting. "Especially when our
elections are so close, and could be thrown by one or two votes. It's
just not worth it."
In the past, absentee ballots were handed out by council members
to residents upon request. The decision on how they are distributed
this year was left up to the election committee, which will report
back to the full council at the September meeting.
While no decision has been made, distribution might be modeled
after a municipal election, a recommendation made by President
Danette Erickson at the meeting, Raghavachary said.
Under that plan, one absentee ballot would be available to
registered voters, who would have to return them in a sealed envelope
with their signature across the seal.
"I think that if we can get them 99% verified, I could probably
say that's OK," she said after the meeting.
Candidate applications will be available Sept. 19, and the filing
period will last through Oct. 17. Elections will be from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. the first Saturday in November at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's
Station, 4554 Briggs Ave.
Councilman Charles Beatty said he was not happy with the decision
made by the council Thursday night to allow voters to cast only one
vote instead of three as in previous years.
"I think you're disenfranchising them," he said. "For the City
Council of Glendale, when there are three seats open, you can vote
for up to three candidates. It's only fair."
Councilman Clair Rawlins has been on the council for five years,
and said he didn't think it would make any difference "how they do
it."
"In this community, I don't think you're going to have enough
people that are going to falsify ballots," he said.
