Elections 2008

Leaders of Los Angeles County's organized labor announced Tuesday that they will throw their political heft behind state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas in the race for county supervisor, publicly kick-starting what promises to be the most intensely contested county board election in 16 years. The endorsement by the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor provides the liberal Ridley-Thomas a valuable boost in his campaign against the more conservative Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C.

In Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's relentless mission to convert her doubters, every grasp of the microphone, every empathetic nod, every studied recitation of fact matters. In the hourlong span of a town hall meeting, an assured performance can bring a few more skeptics into the fold.

With time running out to overhaul California's healthcare system this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez are fashioning a high-stakes strategy to raise business and hospital taxes through a ballot measure that would circumvent defiant Republican lawmakers. "I think we're on the verge of doing something huge," Nuñez told The Times' editorial board Friday.

More than 9 million voters took part in the Feb. 5 presidential primary in California, setting a record for participants and marking the highest turnout rate in a primary since the 1980 election. According to a report by Secretary of State Debra Bowen, 55.7% of registered voters either cast ballots by mail or at precincts around the state. The 1980 turnout was 63.3%. Though the turnout percentage was not a record, the number of participants was.

Although the presidential primary is the main attraction on the Feb. 5 ballot, Californians will also decide on seven statewide propositions, including one that would give many sitting lawmakers more time in office and four that could nullify Indian gambling compacts passed this year by the Legislature. Voters are also being asked to decide whether community college fees should be reduced and the schools guaranteed a certain share of the state budget. There are some strange twists.

* Your polling place: Los Angeles voters can visit www.lavote.net and click on "Polling Place & Sample Ballot Look Up." All other voters should contact the local city clerk. Contact information for city clerks can also be found on the website. Click on the "General Information" tab, the "City Elections" link and finally on "City Clerk List/Websites." For Desert Hot Springs voters: voteinfo.net.

A measure backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to strip state legislators of the power to draw their own districts qualified Tuesday for the November ballot. Ten other measures have already qualified, including initiatives that would ban gay marriage, regulate treatment of farm animals and require that parents be notified before an abortion could be performed on a minor. The redistricting measure would create a 14-member commission to draw new Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts every 10 years based on new census data.

Orange County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to place a measure on the November ballot letting voters decide if future pension increases for county government workers should be put to a public vote. If approved by voters as part of the Nov. 4 general election ballot, the measure would amend the county's charter to require that retirement benefit increases for county workers be approved by a majority of voters, with a study of the benefits' cost published in ballot pamphlets.

Weighing the fate of how Californians will vote in February's presidential primary, Secretary of State Debra Bowen was holed up in her Sacramento office late Friday, deciding how many of the state's 58 counties would be allowed to use computerized balloting.

A judge ruled Monday that Janet Nguyen won the February election for an Orange County Board of Supervisors seat by a slim three-vote margin, rejecting arguments by her opponent that a recount wasn't completed because the paper audit of electronically cast ballots was not counted manually. "All the votes were counted," said Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner. "There was a full and legal recount."