South Gate Voter Turnout Decreases

South Gate voters stayed home for the most part during Tuesday’s primary election. Approximately only 9.6 percent of the total local electorate went out to cast their vote for this year’s primary election.  Far lower then the statewide voter participation of 25 percent that was recorded.

Carmen Avalos, City Clerk for the city of South Gate, feels that the vast majority of voters are disillusioned.

“People are disgusted with politics in general,” said Avalos. “ I am not surprised that [that voter turnout] went down.”

South Gate did experience a growth in registered voters of almost 18 percent since the previous electoral primary of 2008. The total number of voters grew from 28,621 to 33, 465 people. Despite this fact a total of 3,810 people, approximately 13.5 percent, of the then electorate casted ballots in 2008. This is comparison to the 3,233 that voted this year, and which turned out to be 9.6 percent.

Avalos pointed to the the historic nature of the 2008 presidential primary elections as a reason for the growth.  The candidates running now are not as fresh as they once were.

“Now we have the same persons running,” said Avalos. “It was a lot more different in 2008 and you probably had a lot people on board that had never done it.”

Mayor Bill De Witt expressed regret with the turnout. Further adding that this is a problem beyond South Gate.

“It is sad commentary on life in Southern California,” concluded de Witt, adding that not enough advertising was also spent in South Gate. ”[However,] maybe with the presidential elections it will go higher.”

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