$4.3 million.
That’s a lot of money to flush away.
Our education system is forever in need of improvement and $4.3 million could pave the road to a better education for community college students at the nine L.A. Community College District campuses.
Instead, this money is being spent on a runoff election between the top two vote-getters for Seat Five on the LACCD board of trustees: current board president Georgia Mercer, and her opponent from the reform group, “Alliance for Education,” Roy Burns.
The key word there is “vote-getters.”
You see, we already voted on this issue.
On March 6, Mercer acquired 46.3 percent of the votes cast, while Burns retained only 32.1 percent.
The remaining 21.6 percent went to two other candidates who also ran for this seat.
We already re-elected Mercer!
California election code requires that a majority of the votes (50 percent plus one vote) be earned by a candidate in order for them to automatically win.
Lacking a majority, the top two candidates enter a runoff election, even when there are four candidates in the race, making it virtually impossible for any one candidate to secure 50 percent of the votes.
If Burns had the best interest of this district in mind, he might have opted to concede after being denied the seat by such a large percentage, thereby saving us all the cost of the runoff election, which is expected to have an extremely low voter turnout.
The election code should be adjusted in such a manner that would allow a much less costly solution to this type of situation.
If nothing else, a required majority should not be necessary in elections with more than two candidates.
And by the way, that $4.3 million?
It’s your tax money.