Looking at tonight’s election returns, Cal State Long Beach political science professor Matt Lesenyie was struck at just how important turnout is everything in races that lack name recognition.
“We’re in a primary race in a small jurisdiction with little candidate recognition,” said Lesenyie.
To illustrate, Lesenyie pointed to the huge difference in results in the 3rd District and 7th District City Council races.
In the open seat 3rd District race, early results show no break-out winner among the six-candidate field. Current front-runner Kristina Duggan’s 1,176 votes amounts to just 22% of the vote, and just 48 votes separate her from Greg Magnuson, who has 1,028 votes. Nima Novin is currently in third, separated from Magnuson by just 24 votes.
“If that’s not an argument for showing up and casting a ballot, I don’t know what is,” said Lesenyie.
By contrast, in the 7th District, incumbent Roberto Uranga took a massive early lead against three challengers with nearly 64% of the vote. In fact, nearly a thousand votes currently separate Uranga from Carlos Ovalle, his closest challenger.
“It makes a world of difference to have name recognition,” said Lesenyie.
Turnout was low in Long Beach, with just 17% of registered voters casting a ballot so far, according to the firm Political Data Intelligence. But the 3rd District saw the highest turnout in the city, at 25%, while the 7th had just 14%, according to PDI.