League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA March 3, 2015 Election
	Charter Amendment 2 New Election Dates and Schedules for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD); One-Time Adjustment to Align Terms With New Election Dates By 2020 City of Los Angeles Charter Amendment - Majority Approval Required Pass: 145,163 / 76.7% Yes votes ...... 44,014 / 23.3% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Arguments For Charter Amendment 2	Arguments Against Charter Amendment 2
A government of the people and for the people requires participation BY the people. Elections are the great equalizer, allowing everyone's voice to be heard with the same weight without regard to race, age or gender. Elections are sacred and allow our democracy to function. Elections are also expensive--costing taxpayers millions of dollars. When we hold elections with very low voter turnout, we are wasting money and placing power directly into the hands of special interests--not the voters. It's time for change. It's time to simplify our election process and stop wasting taxpayer dollars. A YES vote on Charter Amendment 2 will do this. For as long as anyone can remember, Los Angeles holds elections for local offices like LAUSD School Boardmembers just a few months AFTER we vote for higher profile offices like President and U.S. Senator. Here's the result: In the November 2012 election, turnout was 71%. A few months later, turnout in the 2013 election for three LAUSD Boardmembers was only 21%! That means barely one in five voters are making critical, quality of life decisions for the vast majority of Angelenos. That's simply not democracy at its best! Charter Amendment 2 will consolidate LAUSD elections with federal and state elections, vastly improve voter participation and potentially save LA millions of dollars that could be better spent on schools, parks, libraries, and fixing our roads to reduce traffic. "If switching to on-cycle elections means more people will be involved in choosing their local representatives, then Los Angeles shouldn't hesitate to do it." - Los Angeles Times (9/18/14) Join the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, the Elections Reform Commission, Common Cause, neighborhood councils, academics, business groups, and your neighbors in supporting Charter Amendment 2. Vote YES for higher voter turnout. Vote YES for better democracy. Vote YES to save millions in taxpayer dollars. Vote YES on Charter Amendment 2. PERSONS SIGNING ARGUMENT FOR CHARTER AMENDMENT 2 Dr. Fernando Guerra, Chair, City of Los Angeles Municipal Elections Reform Commission Kathay Feng, Executive Director, California Common Cause Antonia Hernandez, President & CEO, California Community Foundation Daniel Schnur, Former Chair, California Fair Political Practices Commission Gary Toebben, President & CEO, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Stuart Waldman, President, Valley Industry & Commerce Association Rusty Hicks, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, Executive Director, West Los Angeles Community Development Corp. Patricia Berman, President, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council George Thomas, President, Van Nuys Neighborhood Council Rebuttal to Arguments For The assertion "Charter Amendment 2 ... will save millions in taxpayer dollars" has nodemonstrable basis in fact. Charter Amendment 2 does not eliminate school board electionsor reduce their frequency + elections will still be conducted every two years. Only now,taxpayers will be paying L.A. County to run them as a contractor, at an unknown cost. L.A. Councilmembers pushing to change school board election dates cleverly built an extended 5-½ year office term into the ballot language, instead of allowing you, the voter, to decide the length of term. "This ... seems like another attempt to treat the symptom instead of the disease, to puff up participation percentages without necessarily boosting civic engagement... it's discouraging to see (city officials) pretend the problem is in the election system, when they should look inward and encourage the public to do the same." - L.A. Daily News editorial (9/24/14) Vote NO on Charter Amendment 2. PERSONS SIGNING REBUTTAL TO THE ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF CHARTER AMENDMENT 2 BERNARD C. PARKS, Councilmember, District 8, City of Los Angeles HANS JOHNSON, President, East Area Progressive Democrats J. MICHAEL CAREY, Retired City Clerk, City of Los Angeles NANCY PEARLMAN, Trustee, Los Angeles Community College District	Charter Amendment 2 shifts Los Angeles School Board elections to even years - buried at the bottom of a crowded ballot after federal, state, county and city races and propositions. Competing in California's frantic general election environment, local contests would necessarily become exceedingly more expensive and community-based candidates would have less competitive equality. The result: candidates would be even more dependent on special interests to give them money. Combining local elections with so many other offices would tilt the playing field toward favor-seekers, a corrupting influence over LAUSD governance, and expose our precious nonpartisan school board elections to the skewed influence of partisan electioneering. Charter Amendment 2 gives incumbent school board members a free extra year and a half in office. It restricts the ability of parents to have election debates focused on local school concerns. It is bad for Los Angeles' educational future and lacks accountability and fairness. Even the proposal's supporters acknowledge changing the election date does not solve the problem of declining voting. It only addresses a symptom. School board candidates are the most closely tied to community and neighborhood support. This measure would drive up the costs of their candidacies in the much more expensive context of a Presidential or gubernatorial election year, without providing candidates any matching funds. Special interests' strong grip on the machinery of electioneering in partisan federal, state and county campaigns dominates the even-year ballot and would become stronger. Real election reform should focus on earlier and expanded civics education, easier and more modernized voting procedures, scheduling elections on a weekend, and campaign reform. Charter Amendment 2 is fake reform. It flies in the face of the very effort to engage voters and increase trust in the democratic process that proponents suggest. Vote NO on Charter Amendment 2. PERSONS SIGNING ARGUMENT AGAINST CHARTER AMENDMENT 2 BERNARD C. PARKS, Councilmember, District 8, City of Los Angeles HANS JOHNSON, President, East Area Progressive Democrats J. MICHAEL CAREY, Retired City Clerk, City of Los Angeles NANCY PEARLMAN, Trustee, Los Angeles Community College District Rebuttal to Arguments Against It's common sense: higher voter participation will hold elected officials accountable to the public. Charter Amendment 2 would bring sunlight to our elections by tripling voter turnout, so that special interests can't operate in the shadows. Even the chief opponents of Charter Amendment 2 have admitted that the reforms in Charter Amendment 2 would lead to "A larger turnout." We agree. Opponents claim higher turnout elections would pose "an unknown cost." That's because there is NO cost. Every independent analysis says Charter Amendment 2 will save money because the LAUSD will no longer have to pay the costs for printing, mailing ballot pamphlets, hiring poll workers, and other election-related expenses. Vote YES to put power back in the hands of the voters, not the special interests. Vote YES to save taxpayer dollars needed to fund schools, libraries and parks--not more elections. Vote YES on Charter Amendment 2. PERSONS SIGNING REBUTTAL TO THE ARGUMENT AGAINST CHARTER AMENDMENT 2 Dr. Fernando Guerra, Chair, City of Los Angeles Municipal Elections Reform Commission Kathay Feng, Executive Director, California Common Cause Antonia Hernandez, President & CEO, California Community Foundation Daniel Schnur, Former Chair, California Fair Political Practices Commission Gary Toebben, President & CEO, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Stuart Waldman, President, Valley Industry & Commerce Association Rusty Hicks, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, Executive Director, West Los Angeles Community Development Corp. Patricia Berman, President, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council George Thomas, President, Van Nuys Neighborhood Council