District-based ballots confuse some voters

When Lodian Maria England received her absentee ballot for the upcoming Nov. 6 general election, she saw that the candidates for Lodi City Council and Lodi Unified School District Board of Education were missing.

“At first, I thought it was an omission, but the city clerk confirmed that it wasn't supposed to be on my ballot,” England said. “My district won't be up for election for two more years.”

San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Melinda Dubroff said her office has received multiple similar calls recently, many of them from people who were confused about Lodi’s newly-implemented district-based voting system for city council candidates similar to the system used for school board candidates for years.

“It depends on where you are, but there are only three council districts on the ballot for this election,” Dubroff said.

Lodi had previously used an at-large voting system for city council elections, Dubroff said, and with only Districts 1, 2 and 3 up for election this year, residents in Districts 4 and 5 will not see city council candidates on their ballots.

District 1 has 8,325 registered voters, according to Lodi City Clerk Jennifer Ferraiolo, while District 2 has 6,532 and District 3 has 7,136, meaning that a total of 21,993 Lodi voters will see city council candidates on their ballots.

Ferraiolo said city council candidates Alan Nakanishi — the incumbent of District 1, incumbent Mark Chandler and challenger Spencer Rhoads of District 2 and incumbent Doug Kuehne of District 3 will all appear on the ballot, even though Nakanishi and Kuehne are running unopposed.

“The only way they would not have been on the ballots is if we had canceled the election, which we didn’t,” Ferraiolo said.

Lodi Unified School District has used a similar district-based voting system for its board of education candidates for years.

In Lodi School Board Area 1, incumbent Bonnie Cassell will be challenged by Susan Macfarlane while in Area 3, incumbent George Neely runs unopposed.

Kanwaljeet Gill, Courtney Porter and Dave Sorgent are all vying for the Area 4 seat, which will be left vacant when current board member Dr. Daryl Talken’s term ends, and incumbent Ron Heberle will face challenger Ramon Yepez for the Area 5 seat.

According to Cathleen Glaser, interim candidate filing officer for the county registrar of voters, 13,576 registered voters live in Area 1 as of Monday, while 11,397 voters live in Area 3.

Area 4 has 14,821 registered voters, according to Glaser, while Area 5 has 9,612 registered voters, meaning that a total of 49,406 local voters will see school board candidates on their ballots.