Beach Cities turnout for Tuesday’s midterm elections was only a few percentage points higher than in the Obama-era midterm elections in 2014. Approximately 50 percent of registered voters in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, and 40 percent of Redondo Beach and El Segundo voters, made it to the polls on Tuesday. By contrast, turnout for the Trump versus Clinton Presidential election in 2018 reached 80 percent in the Beach Cities.
The relatively low turnout may be attributable to the absence of strong Republican challengers in local, partisan races, observed Hermosa Beach Democratic Party activist Dency Nelson. But Dency also pointed out that nearly 1 million LA County ballots, representing 20 percent of the county’s five million registered voters, remain uncounted. Assuming 20 percent of Beach City ballots also remain uncounted, local turnout for the 2018 election will be approximately 15 percent above 2014’s turnout and 20 percent below 2016’s turnout. ER
