Compton preparing to move to an all mail election in 2021
Compton City Clerk Alita Godwin gave a powerpoint presentation during the November 10 regular city council meeting regarding the upcoming April election. Citing significant costs, the city is preparing to move to an all vote by mail voting system as opposed to traditional voting at a polling location.
The 2020 Presidential Election drew record voter turnout as the first time in the nation, every registered voter, in Los Angeles County, received a ballot in the. mail, whether they requested it or not.
Godwin explained that voting by mail would be approximately $350,000 as opposed to $700,000 to open polling locations.
The offices up for election are:
Mayor- Aja Brown has pulled a rabbit out the hat with her promotion of a Universal Basic Income pilot program to help nearly 800 underserved Compton residents. With the funds currently raised, payments are projected to be $200 per recipient. It was long rumored that District 2 Councilman Isaac Galvan would run against her, but those plans could be derailed. Potential challengers for Brown are District 4 Councilwoman Emma Sharif and long-time resident James Hayes.
District 2- Isaac Galvan is the incumbent currently serving his second term. He was the first Latino elected to the city council in the city’s history but at times has been controversial. He continues to not disclose his campaign donors/expenditures since being elected. The city’s website shows he hasn’t turned in the required forms in years. He has not represented himself properly at events, outside of city limits, and recently made headlines over an FBI raid on his home related to cannabis. Notable potential challengers would be Andre ‘Hub City’ Spicer, Skyy Fisher, Jackie Venters, Dr. Jace Dawson, and Alma Pleasant.
District 3- Tana McCoy is a retired city of Compton employee and one of the least controversial members of the council, although city employees may tell you different. Notable potential challengers are Jocye Kelly, Chris Petit and Tomas Carlos.
City Clerk- Alita Godwin has served the city since the retirement of former City Clerk Charles Davis and has recently drew public ire for refusing to read public comments that have to be emailed to her. Some members of the community took the opportunity to humiliate Godwin, by remarking on her obvious difficulties to read their comments out loud. She stated “it hurt her spirit” to have to read in her words “hateful” comments and refused to read them. City Manager Craig Cornwell stated they do not have to be read, which should have been at the direction of the city attorney. At times its hard to draw a line between Cornwell’s being the city manager or city attorney. Satra Zurita will be her only challenger.
City Attorney- Damon Brown rode into the seat due to his working relationship and fraternity membership he shares with Cornwell. Commenters regularly bring up he actually lives in Pomona. Residents are BEGGING former Mayor Eric Perrodin to run against him.
City Treasurer- Doug Sanders let $3.7 million of taxpayer dollars walk out of City Hall. If residents don’t let him and his daddy’s desk leave the confines of the Finance Department it will be a total travesty. Jasper Jackson is the logical choice as he hasn’t lost a dime of their money.
Filing period opens December 28 and will run through January 25, 2021.
Of course Alita wants an all vote by mail, because it’s easy for the post office in Compton to dump the ballots in the trash, which was done a few years ago!
Alita has never given a clear report of the spending of money on any election!
How do we know how much she collects from candidates and where does it go?
Do the council and mayor pay the same filing fees? Why does she continue to use the same company who fakes the counting?
Maybe a good thing since she ran against Satra and was losing until a polling place sent the ballot box to City Hall over 2 hours after the others were received and she won!
We need to let the county handle the elections!!!
Q.) How do we know how much she collects from candidates and where does it go?
A.) A quick search onto the city website I found in 2017 there was a $300 process fee that all candidates must pay at the time of nomination. Candidates may choose to collect 300 signatures in lieu of the $300 fee. The optional Candidate Statement fee for those who are running for AT-Large positions like Mayor is $2500 and $1500 for those who are running for council seats. In addition there is also a $500 mandatory refundable sign removal deposit. Here is a link to this for this information: http://www.comptoncity.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=27310
Q.) Do the council and mayor pay the same filing fees?
A.) If they are candidates it seems like they do.
Q.) Why does she continue to use the same company who fakes the counting?
A.) The County of Los Angeles is required to print, mail and collect ballots
Wow. Words cannot express. While some observations may be on target, others are clearly not. First,, characterizing the Mayor as “pulling a rabbit out of her hat” over a program will benefit 800 of her chiding out of 100,000 residents after eight years of non-performance ranked by many the worst administration in city history is a bit much. Another example, do we know Satra Zurita is the only contender for City Clerk? I have many other observations but do not want to distract from an all-mail ballot and the obvious potential for cheating in a city like Compton where the city clerk doesn’t number regular ballots. You may as not hold the election. I have zero faith in its integrity. When the city clerk runs, it should be in the charter for the county to hold the election. Compton has had only two city clerks, Charles Davis and Alita Godwin, in 48 years. Speaks volumes.
Residents have been very unhappy with the street repair schedule and the chatter kinda disappeared when the focus moved to her screaming at the Sheriff and promoting UBI.
My guess is Lynn Boone will also run for city clerk and will try and use the recalls to amplify her message. Up until now it’s not widely publicized.
The Inglewood city charter says city employees have to resign before running but the city clerk ignored it for her deputy to run. Also put her deputies name on city materials and allows her to run meetings in her place. I can’t help but notice the correlation b/t Compton and Inglewood when Charles Davis was dispatched to Inglewood to train Yvonne. Charles also had/has a city issued badge to access Inglewood city hall.
I disagree that the focus of citizens has shifted because of the Sheriff controversy and promoting UBI. Perhaps politicians hope the focus has shifted but there continues to exist a barrage of complaints across the spectrum about the bond proposal, street repairs, increasing crime, the dishonesty, the lack of transparency, wasted money, the many false claims, the homeless, the work promised and not done, you name it . Sometimes dissent means people are just over it or a person and the ridiculous has entered the sublime phase. As for the role of the city clerk, ours was instrumental in delaying the current recall timeframe and paperwork submission though Compton has historically never seen a successful recall directly again because of the bloated voter rolls kept by the city clerk. You see, they all work sometimes on the dais together as a finely tuned machine to keep themselves in place. I don’t know what prompted the city clerk’s refusal to read comments but I do know that Compton’s audacity in disrespecting the charter and the Brown Act is legendary or its disregard of the public. As for history, even as a child in Compton, I heard stories and concerns about elections. I went away for years and when I cam home, my name was still on the books though I had lived in northern California and even Texas. Says a lot about the intent to not flush the voter roles so I am not surprised when I hear complaints continuing and history repeating itself even elsewhere. Saddest part, Inglewood and Compton are both minority cities and the disrespect shown by politicians of the populace has seen no lower depths than how we treat our own.
Miss Macon,
At this last Tuesday’s council meeting it was explained LA County Registrar would be mailing out ballots to all 48k registered voters in the City of Compton. To return ballots they could either be placed in three of the ballot drop off locations used during the November election, placed into the mail or dropped off at the county building in norwalk. County Registrar election officials are the only ones with access to the ballot drop off boxes located in the city. If voters mail their ballots its sent to the county not the city. Ballots are received and county by the county elections department.
If the County is printing, mailing, picking up and receiving ballots, how is the city clerk “planning to cheat”?
I have no problem accepting correction as I did not have an opportunity to listen to the meeting. I hope the process as you described above is in fact, true. However, I also hope the counting is BEING DONE 100% ENTIRELY BY THE COUNTY as the city once before advertised the county was doing the count, and when I checked later with the county, I discovered the city had only contracted for 20% to be done by the county, and the other 80% was counted by the city. Misleadingly saying the count was being done by the county quieted up front voters’ discontent and concerns about cheating, while in the end, several hundred ballots went unaccounted for in the city’s 80% counted portion. That’s why I remain skeptical.