Latino District’s Voter Turnout Drops to 26% : Oxnard: Some observers say La Colonia voters may have been intimidated by the length and complexity of the ballot.

Voter turnout among residents in La Colonia, Oxnard’s predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood, was almost 50% lower than the city as a whole, despite a recent voter registration drive and two Latino mayoral candidates on the ballot.

Only 26% of the registered voters in the mostly working-class Latino neighborhood went to the polls Nov. 6, while voters throughout the city averaged a 48% turnout rate, according to voter records.

Latino advocates and others who have studied voting patterns in Oxnard remained undaunted by the percentages, saying Latino voters may have been intimidated by the long and complex ballot and the turnout percentages may have been skewed by out-of-date voter registration records.

“English is my first language, and I was intimidated by the size of the ballot,” Assistant Registrar of Voters Ruth P. Shepler said.

In October, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project funded a voter registration drive that concentrated on Latino voters in La Colonia and Rose Park neighborhoods. About 300 new voters were registered during the drive, said Noelia Chavez, a spokeswoman for El Concilio of Ventura County, a Latino advocacy group in Oxnard that coordinated the drive.

During the effort, Chavez said El Concilio found that many Mexican-American voters in Oxnard were intimidated by the size of the ballot.

El Concilio also found that many of the addresses for voters in La Colonia were out of date, she said. In addition, the organization learned that many residents were not citizens and therefore could not register to vote, Chavez said.

El Concilio gathered the names of about 225 residents who were interested in becoming naturalized citizens, she said.

During the 1988 general elections--which coincided with the presidential election--43% of the voters in La Colonia turned out to vote, while the rest of the city averaged 67%, according to voting records.

Shepler said turnout percentages are usually 20% to 30% higher during a presidential election.

The county provided no Spanish-language ballots during either election.

Activism among the city’s Latinos, who represent more than 50% of Oxnard’s population, has been on the rise in recent years and the low turnout should not be counted as a setback, said Karl Lawson, a community relations specialist for the city.

He said he believes that the turnout percentages reported by county voting officials are skewed because La Colonia residents move more frequently than other residents and may not re-register, leaving voting records out of date.

“We are not just talking about a handful of people,” he said.

Lawson, who worked for the United Farm Workers union for 11 years before he was hired by the city, agrees that the complexity and size of this year’s ballot may also have discouraged some Latino voters.

“That intimidated college graduates,” he said.

John Soria, one of two Mexican-American candidates who unsuccessfully ran for the mayoral post, said he believes that Latino voters simply were frustrated with an electoral system that has produced only three Latino council members in the city’s 87-year history.

“People don’t like to lose,” he said. “They like to win.”

In September, Soria filed a lawsuit that seeks to replace the city’s at-large voting system with a system that allows districts to elect representatives to the council.

That system would encourage Latinos to vote because it would force politicians to focus on neighborhood problems, he said. Politicians “would have to entice and involve every single district in Oxnard,” he said.

Lawyers for Soria and the city are trying to resolve the lawsuit out of court. However, Soria said he believes that the suit will be decided by a jury.

“I’m not going to be satisfied until we get a real opportunity at democracy,” he said.

While there were two Mexican-American candidates running for mayor Nov. 6, voters in La Colonia overwhelmingly voted for incumbent and winner Nao Takasugi, who is of Asian descent but was raised in that neighborhood.

In the council race, La Colonia voters helped reelect three-term incumbent Manuel Lopez, an optometrist who was born and raised in Oxnard.

Lawson said the results prove that Latino voters don’t necessarily vote for Latino candidates.