L.A. lawmakers move to sync elections with federal, state contests

A panel of Los Angeles lawmakers pressed ahead Friday with a plan to ask voters to shift local elections to even-numbered years — a schedule change that would put them on the same ballot as closely watched contests for governor or president.

The proposal must still go before the entire City Council and ultimately before voters, who could decide whether to change the election schedule in March.

Two separate citizen commissions have backed the idea of shifting local elections to even-numbered years, instead of keeping them in odd-numbered years.

Proponents say the change will bring more Angelenos to the polls, especially black and Latino voters. Less than a quarter of L.A.’s registered voters cast ballots in the mayoral race between Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel last year — the lowest in any two-candidate runoff in a century.

“Our turnout is embarrassing. It is dismal. We are in crisis. And something actually needs to be done,” City Council President Herb Wesson said Friday.

He argued that every city that had consolidated its elections with state and national contests had increased voter turnout.

Opponents counter that local candidates will be forced to raise more money to compete for airtime and that local races will be relegated to the bottom of a lengthy ballot.

Turnout would increase, “but my concern is the trade-offs,” said political consultant Larry Levine, who served on one of the two citizen commissions that examined the issue. “You will have a less-informed constituency voting on municipal issues.”

To change the schedule, L.A. could either hold a special election that would deliver a shortened year-and-a-half term to winners, or lengthen the terms of officials elected in 2015 and 2017 by an extra 18 months.

The plan to change the election date would also provide longer terms for elected officials who begin their terms in 2015 and 2017. The alternative — holding special elections in 2019 and 2021 for shorter terms — could cost the city more than $36 million, according to city officials.

Wesson said that lawmakers wanted to avoid the added costs of special elections, and lengthening terms in office was not something that lawmakers were thinking about when they began exploring ways to improve turnout. The council president is among several lawmakers who are up for reelection in March and could end up with a longer term in office.

“This is not about me. It’s a responsibility that I have to others,” Wesson said, invoking the bloodshed of the American Revolution and the grueling battle fought by African Americans for voting rights. “And while other jurisdictions throughout this country — primarily in the South — are doing things to suppress voter turnout, the city of L.A. is going to do things to try to increase” it.

If approved by voters, the change would begin in 2020 for some council and school board seats and kick into effect two years later for citywide offices and other council and school board positions. The idea is expected to go next to the City Council on Wednesday.

City officials are also analyzing a long list of other ideas to boost turnout, including whether to offer prizes to L.A. voters through a drawing.

In a recent report, Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso and City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana found that such incentives had mixed results elsewhere, increasing turnout in Norway but actually dragging it down in Bulgaria. The strategy has not been tried on a regular basis in the U.S., they found.

Because of federal law, such a program could only be run if there was no federal candidate on the ballot. That means that if L.A. does shift its elections, a prize program could only be offered in the years leading up to the change. Lawmakers asked city officials to come back with a budget and plan for a pilot project that could offer prizes in the city’s next special election.

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