The election has occurred, but is it over? The results will show only a 70-vote gap between incumbent Sharon Barovsky and challenger John Mazza.
The voter turn out was very low (32-plus percent). Absentee ballots numbered 2,367 and as of April 12 only 336 of these had been counted. It seems reasonable that the citizens of Malibu be privy to who exactly cast these absentee ballots, which were counted toward this election’s outcome.
In my travels these past few days, I was alerted to an allegation of a rather open secret. Many of the absentee ballots cast on behalf of students away in other areas attending school, were in fact submitted and signed by parents or other parties instead of the intended, registered voters. Section 100 of the Elections Code for California states “…only a person who is an eligible registered voter at the time of signing the petition or paper is entitled to sign it.” This personal signing is further indicated in Elections Code, Section 3011 (g) “A warning plainly stamped or printed on it that the voter must sign the envelope in his or her own handwriting in order for the ballot to be counted.”
I don’t know, I guess if the concerned citizens of Malibu don’t care, then… However, although I am fairly apolitical, I have lived in Malibu for six years and do care a lot about this city. I got up early and prevailed over a leaking sunroof in the early morning showers to vote. I want to feel like I did these things and that the election was decided ‘fair and square’! I’m not wealthy enough to ask for a polling of the absentee ballots, so I’ll just ask if Sharon Barovsky is sure enough of her win to allow those absentee ballots (specifically) to be seen by a neutral party to make sure no irregularities occurred in the votes cast in this election.
I’m sure Mrs. Barovsky would only want to retain her position legally and with the integrity Malibu expects of their elected representatives. What do you think??
Nancy Rosenquist