Taking it Back to the Democracy: Rebuilding Public Confidence in the City of Bell

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The most fundamental building block to good government and strong public confidence is a fair and transparent electoral process that citizens trust to accurately convey the will of the people. Without a functional electoral process, government cannot command legitimacy and the public’s confidence. This is a fundamental principle that is often overlooked or not fully appreciated. Last year the City of Bell was rocked by scandals accusing top city officials of mismanaging city resources for personal gain. On March 8, 2011 the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk helped to rebuild the confidence of the citizens of the City of Bell in our democratic process. This was accomplished by instituting candidate filing training, a voter empowerment workshop, community presentations and transparent ballot processing. Nearly 300 voters attended our Voter Empowerment Workshop and nearly 50 participants attended our “Candidate Filing Training. An unprecedented 18 candidates qualified to be on the ballot. Voter turnout in the election increased by ten percentage points compared to the previous election 34% versus 24% in 2009.