San Diego Mayoral Special Election Look Ahead

Monday, November 18, 2013

By Maureen Cavanaugh, Megan Burke, Peggy Pico

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Voters in the city of San Diego are preparing to vote for Mayor, again.

A new 10 News/UT San Diego poll finds it's a dead heat for second place. Councilman Kevin Faulconer remained in the lead with 40 percent of respondents saying they'd vote for him.

But two Democratic candidates are in a tight race for second place. Former California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher has the support of 24 percent of those polled, and Councilman David Alvarez has 22 percent of the vote.

Despite the growing number of mail-in-ballots for elections in San Diego, the County's Registrar of Voters made a plea last week for more stand-by poll workers for the Nov. 19 election.

Registrar Michael Vu said he expects between 40 to 45 percent of voters to turn-out in the special election.

Vince Vasquez, a policy analyst for NUSIPR predicts about 70 percent of those voters will be absentee.

Vasquez has been following who's been voting so far. He authored a report analyzing absentee ballots cast in the special election.

Vasquez said Kevin Faulconer has the advantage based on which parts of the city the absentee ballots have been coming from.

“Unlike the November 2012 mayoral general election, voter turnout has been low and concentrated in only a handful of neighborhoods,” Vasquez said in a press release. “With nearly two-thirds of the vote yet to be cast, candidates will need to be reaching voters and walking precincts up to minute the polls close on Election Day.”

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