Vote narrows between SLT council candidates
As more absentee ballots were counted since election night, South Lake Tahoe City Council candidate Austin Sass is now one vote behind third place finisher Angela Swanson.
Three positions are up on the five-member board.
More ballots are outstanding and these numbers will change.
The numbers as of Nov. 6:
- Wendy David — 1,271 votes
- Tom Davis — 1,094
- Angela Swanson — 989
- Austin Sass — 988
- Brooke Laine — 939
- Matt Palacio — 907
- Bruce Grego — 864.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Go Sass! City needs a little new blood…
Wow! One vote at the present time separating Angela and Austin. Wake up people and get out and vote for these elections! Our turnout here in “Tahoe South” is absolutely pathetic.
One thing I love about South Lake Tahoe is your vote really can make a difference at the local level. For every person that does not show up for an election, your vote becomes more powerful. Those that did vote have quite a bit of sway over what happens.
I wonder how this vote would look if property owners who pay taxes but can’t vote locally would have been allowed to cast their ballots for the council which imposes fees on their properties.
I wonder how someone can post about not being able to vote in a locale they don’t reside. One would think at this stage in their lives they would have figured out that if a property owner wants a say on imposed fees within a locale, they would make that locale their permanent residence.
Following Tahoe Advocate’s logic I should be able to vote everywhere I pay taxes. So I can should be able to vote in Carson City because I shop at COSTCO and Trader Joes and Wal-Mart, and Reno because I shop there too and SF because I pay taxes when I visit and oh yeah Washington, DC because they gets lots of my taxes and Sac because they also get lots of my tax dollars too.
Anyhow off the topic of this article. Every vote counts and it is pathetic that our turnout is so low. The reality is that approx. 75-80% of the people who are registered to vote just don’t give a damn about what happens here. Our forefathers and veterans who fought for our freedoms must be crying for all of us.
Wake up and vote next time.
reza, I agree with you that voter turnout is so low as to be pathetic.Wait till everyone sees their property taxes go up and those renting see their rent go up!
The job market is skimpy at best and for those looking for work and for those who have jobs they are seeing hours cut for underpaying jobs with benefits being cut.
Yes reza, too many pople don’t give a damn! Unless that is unti it effects them directly! It has effected me!!! Take care , OLS
8804 register voters
21000 or so residents
The most that voted: 1271
This is very sad.
Reza, I think the point is about PROPERTY taxes. As in, people who do not pay them (directly) are voting to increase the property taxes of those who do pay them. That has always seemed completely wrong to me, too. Sales tax is considerably different, and a considerably lower expense. Even in buying a car, if you buy it far from home, you can still arrange for the tax to be calculated in your home county rather than in the place you purchase it.
Here in Lake Tahoe, since 65% of the properties are absentee owned, that’s a whole lot of people voting on property tax issues who do not pay them, and a whole lot of people who pay those taxes and have no say about it. And those of us who live here AND pay that tax are really in a world of hurt, because we don’t have rental houses to increase rent on, we just pay and pay and pay.
Because democracy is two wolves and a sheep, voting on what to have for lunch.
Deb, there were 2903 people who voted for city council out of 8804 registared voters a 33% turnout. The 1271 number is how many votes the winner recieved.
About 7000 votes for city council divided by 3 equals about 2500 ballots cast. Putting in a fudge factor for less than 3 votes per ballot of 500 and you have 3000 people or so voting. 1/7 of the estimated population of 21,000 then voted and if you look at over 18’s who can vote it is about 1/4 of the adult population.
It would be interesting to know how many people actually live in SLT all year around.
I for one of many live just across the city border and have lived on the south shore for 40 years and operated a business in town for almost 30 years yet cannot vote for our city council and other related issues! Vacation home owners are another story.
Yes apathy of voters locally and nationally has been the case for decades and one vote could count.
Just read the Trib that stated there are over 4ooo votes yet to be counted and it may be “weeks” untill the final count ? How could that be the case? Must be a typo or a really poor system.
Phil, the path to being able to vote in SLT is very clear per CA state laws. You need to become part of the city. Float a petition and get the idea in front of the county and the city who would then have to do an analysis of what it would cost the city, cost the newly incorporated area and what services you would lose or gain. This is not a city decision, its you and whomever signs the petition ( I think you need a 1,000 signatures). A similar thing is going on in Squaw where people are trying to incorporate.
This is like getting out to vote. if you feel that strongly about it, stop talking, get mobilized, and get the signatures.
SAss is now in Third place about 22 votes ahead of Swanson
I am curious to know the current count between Sass & Swanson – It’s after 5pm! What are the current numbers?
Irish Wahini:
You can obtain the most recent count at the following link:
http://www.edcgov.us/elections/
Election department working after 5pm on friday, I don’t think so. Next results Monday, sometime before 5pm.
Mr. Pierini:
This article was published on November 6th and the results it contained were from November 6th. 4-mer’s November 7th post suggesting perusal of the EDC link was subsequent to the information on EDC’s elections website being updated on November 7th at 4:35 p.m. at which time it showed that Sass had pulled ahead of Swanson by 22-votes.
What do you have against government employees?
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Nothing! Thought a prudent thing to do was work until all the votes are counted. Working one weekend a year, with pay, what do you have against that?
The post before you’d was after 5pm Nov. 7th, maybe you missed that.
Mr. Pierini:
While the post before 4-mers was on November 7th after 5 p.m. that comment was posted in this specific article dated November 6th, and the gentleman’s post made no reference to the EDC website. The mention of EDC’s website was just a reference to an alternate source where one could obtain information aside from this publication.
I don’t have anything against working one weekend a year with pay however I’ve personally worked more weekends without pay than I care to admit. But since those EDC government employees’ regularly scheduled work days are Monday through Friday that one weekend would require overtime pay. Then the taxpayers would be up in arms that OT was being paid for those staff to just perform their regular job function. Working for the government is a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” proposition since government is who everyone wants to hate. Unfortunately government employees (those people who don’t make up the rules but are tasked with the execution of policy) are frequently treated very shabbily by the public.
Hope you have a real “glass half-full” kind of day.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
Ya know, your full of it and wrong to the bone!
Your glass seems to be too big for you, sorry.
Spouse-4-mer-usmc, you couldn’t have put It more succinctly as it pertains to government agencies and overtime. What some fail to understand, and I’m quite surprised that Mr. Pierini with his background would even argue this point, is that working voluntarily without pay actually is breaking rules and can lead to termination of employees and supervisors that allow it.
Off topic, and timing way off. Guess you’ve never heard of comp time. The people who ran for the city council worked every weekend with no pay, no ot pay, no sick pay, no holiday pay and no vacation pay let alone workman’s comp, full medicbal, dental or vision benefits and you think working one weekend is too much? Really?
Pierini:
Well, now that you’ve established that being rude is how you best communicate, accompanied by verification of your substandard intellect, I’ll try to dumb things down so you have a modicum chance of understanding. Government employees have Associations/Unions that dictate hours worked and overtime; and City Council Members are not considered employees and they have no Association/Union thus nothing dictates the number of hours they are allowed to work, campaign or whatever. For someone who ran for City Council you appear to lack the most rudimentary understanding of how government operates, which explains why you didn’t get elected.
I think that you are a rude, ignorant person lacking the ability to be polite or civilized. And for someone who operates a small local business you’re not very smart. Since you’re so good at alienating people who could be potential customers I guess I can freely spread the word to everyone I know and to everyone I see who visits here what a piece of s**t business you operate.
Chew on that for a while.
Spouse 4-mer-usmc
Showing your lack of knowledge again, I see. I never ran for city council.
Not how I remember it. It was in the earlier portion of the 2000s.
But if I am wrong it’s just further validation of your continual condemnation of government and your lack of initiative toward attempting to fix what you’re habitually criticizing.
Spouse – 4-mer-usmc
As of late November 12th the count is
WENDY LOU DAVID 1676 18.37%
TOM DAVIS 1409 15.44%
AUSTIN C. SASS 1284 14.07%
ANGELA SWANSON 1248 13.68%
BROOKE LAINE 1211 13.27%
MATT PALACIO 1175 12.88%
BRUCE P. GREGO 1096 12.01%
you can go to this website to check on them as they are updated
http://www.edcgov.us/elections/election/099/099.pdf