Runoff Elections

Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to pick a replacement for former Rep. Jane Harman and choose one board member each for the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Community College District. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots must be received by the time polls close or can be dropped off at a voting place on election day. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot in the 36th Congressional District to replace Harman, who resigned in February.

Voter registration closes Monday for the May 17 special primary election to fill a congressional seat vacated earlier this year by former Rep. Jane Harman, a Venice Democrat. Those who wish to vote by mail have until May 10 to request a ballot, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office. Registration information and mail-in ballots are available through http://www.lavote.net or by calling (562) 466-1323. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot in the 36th Congressional District, which runs south along the coast from Venice to San Pedro and includes inland communities in Torrance and Lomita.

For 14 months, mason Michel Lifrand has lived in a wretched tent camp, desperate for relief, getting none. On Sunday, he sought help by marking an X on a paper ballot. Amid the aftereffects of last year's crushing earthquake and a heap of other problems, Lifrand and other Haitian voters went to the polls to choose a president in a runoff between Michel Martelly, a flamboyant singer of Haitian kompa music, and Mirlande Manigat, a university administrator and former first lady "We want things to change," said Lifrand, 40, who voted for Martelly next to the encampment where he has been since losing his home in the Jan. 12, 2010, quake.

Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister and scion of a publishing family, swept to victory Sunday in Colombia's presidential election with a pledge to continue his predecessor's get-tough policies against crime and insurgency. Santos, 58, easily bested his challenger, former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus. With 99% of votes counted, Santos had garnered 69% of the votes in the runoff election to his challenger's 27%. He will be inaugurated on Aug. 7. Santos, who also outpolled Mockus in last month's first-round election, had been heavily favored to win after he had gained the backing of several major political factions, including third-place finisher German Vargas Lleras.

Viktor Yanukovich, the former mechanic who just six years ago was shunned as a pro-Moscow stooge, declared victory in Ukraine's presidential election Sunday after early exit polls showed him leading by a slim margin. Three exit polls showed Yanukovich leading by 4 to 5 percentage points in a runoff election that threatens to deepen political instability in the contentious former Soviet state. His opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, refused to concede, and the numbers were being bitterly argued into the early hours Monday.

To call the upcoming special runoff election to replace a disgraced former assemblyman from Orange County "low key" would be an understatement. Gone are the cutting exchanges between the front-running Republicans that marked last fall's special primary in the strongly Republican 72nd Assembly District. The campaign brochures that once blanketed such communities as Fullerton, Anaheim and Brea have slowed to a trickle. And by the time the polls open Jan. 12, registrar officials predict, about three-quarters of those who will decide the election may already have cast their ballots by mail, as they did in the primary.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed sweeping political reforms Tuesday that would allow federal lawmakers and some other officials to be reelected and provide for runoff elections for president if no candidate gained more than half the votes. Calderon said the reforms would make Mexican officials more accountable to voters, who tend to view politicians across a deep chasm of cynicism and mistrust. Some of the proposed changes, such as making room on the ballot for independent candidates, have been promoted by activists as a way to let fresh air into Mexico's musty political system and improve citizen participation as the country tries to develop a real democracy.

A week after a hotly contested mayoral runoff in Atlanta, the second-place finisher on Tuesday requested a recount, while her supporters complained of potential voting irregularities. City Councilwoman Mary Norwood trails former state Sen. Kasim Reed by 715 votes, or less than 1% of the total ballots cast -- the threshold for a recount under Georgia law. Fulton County officials said the process would begin this morning and could be completed by the end of the day. A group of Norwood's supporters also this week filed a complaint with the secretary of state's office.

As the Los Angeles City Council race between Assemblyman Paul Krekorian and former film executive Christine Essel drew to a close, outside groups shattered the record for independent spending in a non-citywide election since ethics officials began tracking those figures two decades ago. By Sunday evening, independent groups, including some of the city's most powerful unions, had poured nearly $1 million into the contest for the San Fernando Valley...