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Los Altos Hills History

National Politicians Court Los Altos Hills Voters

Candidates in Silicon Valley tailor their messages and their strategies to the folks who live in the nicer neighborhoods, and those are the people who turn out at the polls. Which is the chicken and which is the egg?

By Cecily Barnes

FORMER STATE TREASURER Jess Unruh once said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics." The results of the June 2 primary election in the Santa Clara Valley show that money doesn't seem to hurt voter turnout either. Local political analysts weren't too surprised to find statistics from the county Registrar of Voters showing that the valley's four wealthiest cities produced the biggest pile of ballots.

Monte Sereno, where the average household income is $198,000, took first place: 68 percent of the registered voters in that bucolic berg punched ballots. Voters in Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Saratoga--where family units earn between $151,600 and $260,400--also turned out in surprisingly large numbers.

On the flip side, ballot counts paled in the three valley cities with the lowest household incomes: Gilroy, Campbell and Santa Clara.

These statistics demonstrate the sad fact that more often than not, poor people don't vote.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, offers some suggestions as to why this trend continues. "Look at the complexity of the California ballot," Alexander says. "You practically have to have a Ph.D. to vote." Rich people, she says, are generally better educated and can more easily decipher the complex modern ballot.

Poor people also rent instead of own homes, Alexander says, and since renters move frequently, they outrun campaign tracking radar that would remind them of upcoming elections. Availability of free time factors in as well, she says: It is simply easier for the corporate executive to cut out for a few hours on election day than it is for a McDonald's worker.