A closer look at the 2010 general election
Approximately 40 percent of Lakewood’s registered voters participated in the November 2, 2010 general election, according to the official results released last week by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
15,747 valid ballots were cast, a modest 12 percent increase over the 2009 general election total, but still well short of the 25,000 vote output the city has produced in peak years.
As a point of note, while the city had 39,153 registered voters on the date of the general election, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Lakewood’s 2009 population to be 50,235. It is reasonable to assume that many thousands of voting-age residents are not registered. It should also be acknowledged that although the voter registration list is routinely stripped of people who no longer reside in Lakewood, it still has many names of people who, for one reason or another, are inactive.
Click on the map to view a larger image of the percentage of registered voter turnout by ward precinct.
The city is divided into four wards. Each ward is subdivided into 10 precincts, with the exception of Ward 4; it has 11 precincts. The average precinct has 955 registered voters. The smallest has 733 voters, and the largest has 1,147 voters.
A look at the map above shows that the precincts along the coast of Lake Erie had some of the city’s highest percentages of overall voter turnout. Just like the 2010 primary election and the general election in 2009, Precincts 3-A (between Nicholson and Belle) and 1-H (Clifton Park) had the highest percentages of participation at 58.2% and 55.6%, respectively. The city’s southwest precincts also had a strong showing. Precinct 2-J (between Athens and Lakewood Hts., and Morrison and Warren) had a 47.2% rate of participation.
Precinct 4-E (W. 117th to Cove, Clifton to Detroit) and Precinct 4-G (half of Birdtown, and W. 117th to Ridgewood, south of Franklin) had the lowest percentage rates at 21.8% and 22%, respectively. Almost all of the precincts in Ward 4 performed poorly.
Click on the map to view a larger image of the total number of active voters in the November general election by ward precinct.
Because the total number of registered voters varies from precinct to precinct, it is also worth examining the total number of active voters in each ward precinct to gain a more balanced perspective of the city’s voting landscape.
The ward precincts with the greatest number of citizens who cast votes are 3-A, 1-J, and 2-A – basically from Nicholson to Webb, all along Lake Erie – with 581, 544, and 517 votes, respectively.
Not surprisingly, Precinct 4-E (W. 117th to Cove, Clifton to Detroit) and Precinct 4-G (half of Birdtown, W. 117th to Ridgewood, south of Franklin), which had the lowest percentage of participation, also had the fewest number of individuals vote with 185 and 198, respectively.
The two red-colored precincts in Ward 1, 1-G and 1-F, are home to large number of renters and apartment buildings and that could be the source of their low voter turnout.
With a couple of exceptions, Ward 4 continues to be a source of concern. Low voter participation there is just another symptom of larger problems. It is like a diseased limb. Can it be contained and cured or will it spread?
It would be helpful if there was an organization that could lavish care and attention on that part of town in the same way that LakewoodAlive gets resources poured into the central part of the city known as Downtown Lakewood.
Click on the chart to view a larger image.
This chart provides context to the performance of each ward on election day. There are three columns for each ward precinct. The first column contains the ward precinct name. The second column shows the ward precinct’s total number of registered voters. The third column shows the total number of people in the ward precinct who actually voted in the general election.
The data in the columns is sorted by number of people who voted from highest to lowest. The precinct wards color corresponds to the map depicting percentage of overall voter turn out.
For example, Precinct 4-I had 399 voters on election day, the second highest total in Ward 4, and the 15th largest precinct turnout in the city. However, in relation to the total number of registered voters there, only 34.8% of them voted, the 31st lowest total percentage in the city.
One last observation, check out the total voting percentage for each ward. Wards 1, 2 and 3 are virtually the same at around 42%, while Ward 4 is at 34%.
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