elections

A new report from the Visalia-based Community Water Center indicates that nearly 500 local water board seats have gone uncontested in recent elections. In the southern San Joaquin Valley, the report finds that 87 percent of seats on public water boards went uncontested. When only one candidate is seeking a seat, the election for that seat is not held.

Latinos make up 40 percent of California’s population, but just about 15 percent of the state’s mayors and city council members. A bill backed by the state’s legislative Latino caucus is seeking to make city governments more representative. Katie Orr reports from Sacramento.

The bill would require some cities with populations of more than 100,000 to hold district-based municipal elections, instead of at-large elections. 

The city of Visalia is getting closer to altering how they elect their city council. As FM 89's Jeffrey Hess reports, it's a move that some hope will increase diversity in city government.

The city is planning a series of public hearings, beginning in early April, to finalize the five new districts that will each elect one council representative. 

Visalia spokeswomen Nancy Loliva says the city is drawing districts for the first time to settle a voting rights lawsuit over the current system where all council members are elected at-large.

This week on Valley Edition we start off with a story of a veteran who moved to the Valley to go to law school after ten  years in the Coast Guard. We also take a look at the aftermath of the November 4 elections with Fresno State Political Science Professor Jeff Cummins. 

In a year when the lack of women in California politics has become a major theme in the November election, the state controller’s race is an exception, with San Francisco Democrat Betty Yee facing Fresno’s Ashley Swearengin. While the Fresno mayor is a familiar name to many valley residents, Yee is perhaps less well known in Central California. A former finance official in the administration of Governor Gray Davis, she currently sits on the state tax board.

This week on Valley Edition we take a look at the November 2014 elections. Valley Edition host Joe Moore speaks with Capitol Public Radio Bureau Chief Ben Adler and Fresno State Political Science Professor  Jeffrey Cummins about their election predictions. Also on the program Fresno Bee Reporter Tim Sheehan talks about the next chapter of California high speed rail with Moore.

Two big changes to California elections could come up for debate in the state legislature in 2014.  Ben Adler has more from Sacramento on proposals that would eliminate special elections and require cities and counties to hold their votes at statewide elections.

A bill that would expand the pool of volunteers for election polling places is on its way to California Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. And, as Katie Orr reports from Sacramento, it’s generating some philosophical questions.