Polling Places

Ryan Carter With fewer polling places and a much ballyhooed recall process, officials are expecting longer lines and some confusion among voters in Tuesday's historic special election. "There will be widespread confusion as to where to go," said Chris Carson, president of the Glendale/Burbank chapter of the League of Women Voters. "This is unprecedented, and it happened so fast. Usually, there are six to seven months to prepare for an election. This time it was [four to]

ELECTIONS SLATED FOR TUESDAY The election for La Canada Flintridge City Council is Tuesday. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Four candidates are running for three seats. Incumbents Jerry Martin and Anthony Portantino hope to be reelected, and Greg Brown and Laura Olhasso hope to win seats for the first time. Polling places include the Crescenta- Canada YMCA, 1930 Foothill Blvd.; La Canada Flintridge Country Club, 5500 Godbey Drive; and La Canada Flintridge Library, 4545 Oakwood Ave. For more information or additional polling places, call City Hall at 790-8880.

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- Hillside growth, parks, Town Center, budgets, business regulations: These are some of the hot-button issues in Glendale's City Council election, which takes place today. Three council seats are at stake. So are three seats on Glendale's school board and three seats on its college board. The city clerk and city treasurer, who are running unopposed, are also up for reelection. Thirty candidates are vying for the open spots, creating a pool of candidates that is both varied and somewhat overwhelming.

Jackson Bell City officials say they have put an end to a string of power failures that caused large portions of the city to go dark four times in as many weeks. Rerouted high-voltage cables and a backup transformer set to be installed this weekend at Grayson power plant should keep the lights on without interruption, said Ramon Abueg, the city's electrical services administrator. "We believe that after we put in the transformer, everything should be back to normal circulation," Abueg said.

Encouraging high school and college students to vote was among the topics discussed Thursday night at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters Glendale/Burbank. Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian told an audience of about 50 people at the Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library that he was able recruit 110 high school students to work on his spring 2005 campaign for city clerk by visiting them in the classroom. An aggressive, one-on-one approach was a key to getting young people involved in the voting process, Kassakhian said.

GLENDALE — Voters should expect to wait in long lines today, as high turnout is expected throughout Los Angeles County, officials said. County officials advised voters to head to their polling places during non-peak hours — 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. — to avoid standing in long lines, said Paul Drugan, Los Angeles County Register’s-Recorder office spokesman. The county is hoping to reach voters who have flexible work schedules, such as students or retirees, to go to the polls before peak hours, Drugan said.

Americana to the people After three months of build-up, spin, accusations, campaign mailers and commercials, Glendale voters will decide if they want the Americana at Brand, a controversial $264.2- million retail and residential center in downtown Glendale. The Americana debate has been one of the most divisive in the city's history, and scars will likely last beyond Tuesday. For a complete list of polling places, see page A9. Nighttime fun at Descanso Nocturnal animals, birds and flowers bathed in moonlight are just a few of the sights that await those who join docent Jim Jackson on a Friday night walk of Descanso Gardens.

TUESDAY THE TIME TO VOTE IN CITY ELECTIONS Election Day is Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at polling places throughout the city. On the ballot are 19 City Council candidates, nine school board candidates, four Glendale Community College candidates, nine city clerk candidates, two for city treasurer and 21 city charter amendments. For information, call (818) 548-2094. STUDENTS BEE-ING GOOD School-aged wordsmiths will face off at 7 p.m. today during the 29th annual Middle School Spelling Bee at the Glendale Unified School District Administration Center, 233 N. Jackson St. Roosevelt Middle School's team, the defending champions, will put their skills to the test against competitors from Rosemont, Toll and Wilson middle schools.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- Voting may not be so easy this time around. With Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder workers joining a countywide strike Wednesday, the department that handles everything from registering voters to establishing polling places was struggling to handle the massive preparations for the Nov. 7 election. "The Registrar-Recorder is, of course, the department hardest hit," county spokeswoman Judy Hammond said Wednesday.

Ryan Carter After being criticized about the way they handled the April 1 municipal election, city election officials are considering new ways to ensure non-English speakers have access to the polls. Official are considering establishing instructions for marking ballots in Armenian at all future polling places, having expanded training in provisional voting for inspectors, and providing clear guidelines for anyone other than a precinct board member acting as a translator, Glendale City Clerk Doris Twedt said.

Glendale police on Tuesday night seized an open red ballot box that was found strewn on the roadway at Chevy Chase Drive, officials said. The ballot box, which was discovered about 9:20 p.m. on Chevy Chase Drive, fell off the top of a car of an inspector who had just wrapped up operations at a polling place in a home garage, said Efrain Escobedo, a manager for the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder. The inspector went to City Hall to check in and hand over election material when he noticed the box, which contained ballots from registered voters in the area, was missing, he said.

GLENDALE — Voters should expect to wait in long lines today, as high turnout is expected throughout Los Angeles County, officials said. County officials advised voters to head to their polling places during non-peak hours — 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. — to avoid standing in long lines, said Paul Drugan, Los Angeles County Register’s-Recorder office spokesman. The county is hoping to reach voters who have flexible work schedules, such as students or retirees, to go to the polls before peak hours, Drugan said.

Glendale voters hit the polls Tuesday to weigh in on presidential nominees, decide the fate of seven state ballot measures and, as many said, to just plain do their civic duty. Immigration was on the tip of Democrats’ and Republicans’ tongues, as was the war in Iraq and the slumping economy. Some were quick to tout, or denounce, state referendums to extend term limits and expand American Indian casinos. State officials were predicting record turnout in the Super Tuesday election, but voter turnout was reportedly mixed at different polling places throughout the city.

Destroying course would be a shame My whole family learned to play golf at Verdugo Hills Golf Course, and continues to do so ("Group hopes to buy public golf course," March 27). I am currently in the golf club at Verdugo, and it would be a shame to have the developer destroy such a wonderful surrounding. This is a golf course that is enjoyed by the public, and should remain to be enjoyed by the public. There are enough homes and condos around the area, and it will be destroying habitat for animals that live around those hills.

GLENDALE — With several new procedures in place to facilitate the voting process, city officials say Tuesday's municipal election process went according to plan. City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian was pleased with the outcome of the first election he has supervised. "It was really exciting," he said. "It was a lot of work, and at the end of it I think we ran an excellent election. The city's team was great; everything we set out to do, we did." The election, to fill seats for City Council, the Glendale Unified School District board of education and the Glendale Community College board of trustees, capped off with 22.9% voter turnout, which is at the higher end of the city's average voter turnout, he said.

CITY HALL — The city will be providing some new services for Tuesday's general election that officials say will facilitate the voting process. One of the first changes voters will see is the appearance of four languages on their sample ballots. In previous years, voters could request ballots in another language, but now the four languages most commonly used in the city will all be available on every ballot. Federal law requires some languages to be on the ballots, depending on voter demographics in a community, City Atty.

Mismanagement of elections and voter fraud cast a pall over one of the cornerstones of democracy — each citizen's right to vote for the candidate for public office of his or her choice. Glendale elected a new city clerk, Ardashes Kassakhian, in the last municipal election, who has earnestly stated his conviction to make sure that every citizen has the opportunity to vote — an opportunity that was not, in his opinion, afforded to all citizens in the past. Kassahkian's goal is laudable and supported by the Glendale Democratic Club.

City clerk to talk about election Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian is this week's guest on the "Larry Zarian Forum." The two will discuss details of the upcoming April 3 election, including polling places and where interpreters will be available. They will also discuss political signs on lawns and what would happen if they aren't picked up following the election. The show airs at 7 p.m. Thursday on Channel 26. The show's live number is (818) 547-3668. Arbor celebration to be at historic adobe A celebration for trees will take place at Casa Adobe de San Rafael on Tuesday.

Many voters at the polls questioned the need for a special election and came out Tuesday to let their disapproval be known. GLENDALE -- Turnout for Tuesday's special statewide election was strong and steady at polling places in Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge, with residents from all walks of life lining up to perform their civic duty. At St. Gregory Armenian Catholic Church on Mountain Street across from Glendale Community College, about 400 of the precinct's roughly 3,000 voters had cast ballots as of 2 p.m. Those figures did not include a large number of absentee ballots and voters who had cast ballots earlier through touch screen polling stations throughout the Southland, said Tony Pearson, the site's voting inspector.

Encouraging high school and college students to vote was among the topics discussed Thursday night at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters Glendale/Burbank. Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian told an audience of about 50 people at the Buena Vista branch of the Burbank Public Library that he was able recruit 110 high school students to work on his spring 2005 campaign for city clerk by visiting them in the classroom. An aggressive, one-on-one approach was a key to getting young people involved in the voting process, Kassakhian said.