Tuesday, Claremont held elections for two seats on the City Council. Llewellyn Miller won one of the seats; Measure A, an anti-conflict-of-interest law sponsored by the Oaks project, also passed. At press time, incumbent Paul Held led Bernard Bollinger by nine votes, and the result is unlikely to be known until late in the week, due to a small number of uncounted absentee and provisional ballots. Pomona students turned out for the election in record numbers; approximately 80 students braved the intermittent rain to walk the few blocks northwest to the Sycamore School to vote.

"It was a really great turnout for the college students in contrast to normal city elections. If we get one or two, that’s about normal," explained elections worker Sonja Stump-Fagg. According to Los Angeles County officials, about 500 students are registered to vote, but turnout at a non-national election is expected to be low. Pomona’s voter turnout was 16 percent, significantly lower than the 28 percent for all of Claremont’s registered voters, but nonetheless much higher than normal.

Students voted overwhelmingly for Llewellyn Miller and Zephyr Tate-Mann. Because two seats were open on the council, voters were allowed to vote for two candidates, so it is not possible to say that a certain percentage of students voted for a given candidate. However, an informal TSL exit poll conducted at Sycamore Elementary School showed that 41 percent of student votes were cast for Miller and 24 percent were cast for Tate-Mann. Albert Quintanar received seven percent, Held received 3.5 percent, and Richard Bunck and Opanyi Nasiali each received two percent.

When explaining the reasoning behind their votes, many students said that they thought Miller and Tate-Mann were the most likely to effect real change in Claremont. "Miller had an interest in changing the city," explained one Pomona freshman.

"Miller was the only candidate making an effort to reach out to students," pointed out another Pomona freshman.

"I see the council as being a little too conservative, and Tate-Mann and Miller seemed like fresh voices with an interest in college-town relations," said Adam Boardman ’01.

Topping students’ list of concerns were problematic city-college relations and the makeup of the current City Council; of the students polled, 61 percent listed dissatisfaction with the current government as a primary reason for voting. "I’m disgusted by the current City Council and government. I consider them to be enemies of democracy," said Jason Buhle ’02.

Another Pomona junior placed his or her vote in order to "get the incumbent the hell out!"

One Pomona senior’s main voting concern was "representing the various factions, races, and ethnicities of Claremont."

Students were also interested in the fate of the Bernard Field Station and alarmed at the city’s handling of the Irvin Landrum shooting. "I think that the way the City Council handled both the Landrum shooting and the approval process for KGI left a lot of issues unresolved and a lot of people unhappy, and even if nothing specific can be done, I really hope the election makes the City Council more responsive to community members," said Lenard Molina ’02.

Kari Bomash ’01 cited the candidates’ "positions on the Irvin Landrum shooting and how…those candidates felt about student activity in the village" as her main criteria in voting.

The vastly increased student turnout could have been due to significant student-run voter education projects. On February 26, Mortar Board invited all seven City Council candidates to speak at the Rose Hills Theatre in the Smith Campus Center. Additionally, Wells Miller ’02 and Edward Takashima ’02 distributed voter registration forms and educational material to all students; they also campaigned for Llewellyn Miller.

"I’m glad to see greater student participation. The increase is of course not what I had hoped for, but any increase is a good increase, and I hope to see a continuation of the trend in the future," said Takashima. "I’m ecstatic that Mr. Miller won the election. I think he’ll make a fine member of the City Council, and I look forward to seeing a new trend towards better relationships between the college and the community as well as a more open government in the City of Claremont."

The process of counting ballots, which occurred publicly in a crowded Claremont City Hall, seemed to be directly influenced by the controversy surrounding Florida’s November presidential election. Three pairs of electioneers sat in a row in front of the crowd, examining ballots one by one for hanging chads before the ballots were counted by a machine.

According to City Clerk and Election Official Lynne Pahner, Claremont’s procedure for examining ballots has been approved by the United States Office of the Secretary of State, and has not been altered since Florida’ s confusion. "If it is hanging by one or two [perforations] and more than 50 percent of the circle is gone, then it can be removed; the voter’s intention can be determined," said Pahner.

Based on this policy, the election officials did remove some chads, to the surprise of spectators, and despite a large amount of signage at the polls, warning voters to fully remove their chads.

There will not be another major local election until two years from now, when the terms of three more council members will expire. Nonetheless, Pomona students appear committed to remaining involved in local politics. Of the 57 students polled, only three said that they planned to change their registrations back to their home city prior to graduation. Thus there is a significant possibility that college students will constitute a real force in local politics in the coming years.