ABSTRACT
One day, shortly after we had just voted in a November midterm election, my wife was sorting the mail. She suddenly stopped when she came across her sample ballot for that March’s primary in Los Angeles. She looked at me incredulously, as though as a political scientist I was somehow responsible for scheduling elections, and said, “This is ridiculous. Didn’t we just vote?” Apparently most Angelenos felt like my wife did, because when the March primaries to vote in certain districts for city council, board of education, and community college seats came, less than 13 percent of the eligible electorate voted. Slightly more than two months later, when voters were asked to go to the polls yet again to vote in the runoff election, barely more than 9 percent turned out to vote.
