The 2014 Glendale Primary Election is now history and as expected there will be runoffs in all three Council districts – Cholla, Barrel and Ocotillo. How did the candidates fare?
In Cholla District the vote totals were:
- Lauren Tolmachoff 1,751
- Gary Deardorff 1,428
- Robert Petrone 531
- Van DiCarlo 400
Congratulations to Gary Deardorff and Lauren Tolmachoff who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. I will confess to being somewhat of a numbers nerd. Let’s dig a little deeper into the Cholla District.
- Total number of Early Votes Cast 3,467
- Total number of Poll Votes Cast 643
- Total number of Votes Cast 4,110
- Total number of Registered Voters 20,549
Lauren Tolmachoff garnered 8.5% of the total number of registered voters in the Cholla district. Twenty percent (20%) or 4, 110 of all the Cholla district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the candidate field took even smaller percentages of all the voters in this district.
Let’s look at the Barrel District:
- Bart Turner 862
- Randy Miller 831
- Reginald Martinez 660
- Michael Patino 439
- John Benjamin 263
Congratulations to Bart Turner and Randy Miller who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. Here’s how the numbers shake out for the Barrel district.
- Total number of Early Votes Cast 2,443
- Total number of Poll Votes Cast 612
- Total number of Votes Cast 3,055
- Total number of Registered Voters 16,457
Bart Turner captured 5% of the total number of registered voters in the Barrel district. Eighteen percent (18%) or 3,055 of all the Barrel district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the field took smaller percentages of all of the voters in this district.
Lastly, there is the Ocotillo District:
- Norma Alvarez 503
- Jamie Aldama 406
- Bud Zomok 225
- Michael Hernandez 158
Congratulations to Norma Alvarez and Jamie Aldama who will face each other in the Glendale General Election in November. Here are the numbers for the Ocotillo district.
- Total number of Early Votes Cast 1,031
- Total number of Poll Votes Cast 261
- Total number of Votes Cast 1,292
- Total number of Registered Voters 8,619
Norma Alvarez took 5% of the total number of registered voters in the Ocotillo district. Nine percent (9%) of all the Ocotillo district registered voters bothered to vote. The rest of the field took smaller percentages of all of the voters in this district.
These figures should be dismaying and disappointing. There are 45,625 registered voters in these three districts. Out of that number a total of 8,457 voted. That’s 18% of all of the registered voters in these districts. 82% of the electorate were so disengaged or didn’t care enough to vote.
There you have it. Voter choices will be among: an incumbent – Alvarez; community activists – Turner and Aldama; and 3 business people – Miller, Deardorff and Tolmachoff. Let’s hope, although do not count on it, that the voter turnout is better than during the primary. The primary vote totals are scary. It is not just your right to vote. It is your obligation. There are many people throughout the world who wish they had the very right so many callously squander. Remember, dear voter, you get what you vote (or don’t bother to vote) for.
© Joyce Clark, 2014
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I guess the voters in Ocotillo don’t care that their representative (Norma Alvarez) isn’t really representing them. They should be questioning her attendance record at meetings and for votes. Hopefully, someone like Jamie Aldama will be smart enough to call her out on this fact, otherwise it will be more of the same for another four years. But this is what we’ve come to expect in Glendale… more of the same.
“Oh, it’s just a primary; I’ll wait for the real election in November.”
I wonder how many Glendale voters are aware that their city council races occur on “it’s just a primary” election days.
When I received the county’s list of Republican voters in the Cholla District, there were 25,000+ names. That makes the apathy problem even worse, I know. When I was collecting signatures you can’t believe the excuses I heard (well I bet you can). My favorite was “I don’t get involved in that stuff”.
When I think of all the soldiers burried in Arlington National, many of whom died in combat, it makes me sick to think how many died protecting the same right 21,000 people in the Cholla District just flip off, because they don’t want to get involved. I wonder if those soldiers “wanted to get involved” when their draft notice arrived? I have one last point to make; In a time in which we are loosing thousands of WWII vets every month, it’s time to honor the memory of those men and the many who died in combat, by participating in the democracy they fought to protect. VOTE!!
Thanks for keeping your readers up to speed on important issues. You perform a valuable service by doing so. As your follower base continues to grow, I hope you will continue to research the real story and relate it to your readers. It’s important citizens receive information on both sides of an issue without “filters”. It’s important for people to have context by understanding the back story and how all the moving parts fit together. Keep up the good work.
Very good comments about our military paying the price so that our right to vote is protected.
Thanks for the kudos.
Apathy…
It will be the destruction of this country if we don’t wake up soon.
Amen. But how do you get through to people that don’t want to see anything that is not part of their tradition or handed to them without their having to think. Really scary for Ocotillo. Negativity should not be part of good decisions.
Somehow I knew Ocotillo would fall flat. So many are just followers and have never watched a Council meeting or kept up on the negativity our district has portrayed. When I saw that over 1000 were early votes that kind of explained it. All they had to do is fill out the ballot and send it off. Our poll votes meant nothing at that point. Well, I guess this is what we will do in the general election because I was still weighing all the platforms and what the candidates could do for this district to lift it up when I voted. Living in Ocotillo for over 50 years, I really do care. And I want someone to represent everyone in this district, not just family and friends. Very disappointed and I wish I knew how to get more people out to vote, but personal choices in this area are hard to get people to understand. Look around and see who is represented and who isn’t and then please vote with your head, not tradition.
If Alvarez manages to sleepwalk her way to another election, it would be high time to call her out on attendance at meetings and everything else she’s been doing to hurt her district. A recall might be in order–that is if she manages to pull another election out of her ____.