How Palisadians Voted in the Presidential Election: The Final Tally

By JOE HALPER and AURELIA FRIEDMAN | Special to the Palisadian-Post

Pacific Palisades voters overwhelmingly supported the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president. Similarly, all of the endorsed Democratic candidates won their contests by considerable margins. These results reflect the substantial Democratic majority of the Palisades, Los Angeles and the state of California.

The following is an analysis of the final canvas of the Nov. 8^, 2016 General Election of the 19 precincts that constitute the Pacific Palisades 90272 zip code:

The results, to a large degree, reflect the unique demographic profile of the Pacific Palisades populace of 22,636.

Statistics place the community in the 99th percentile of the nation as to median income, cost of living and educational achievement.

The median age of the population is 43.9 years, placing it in the 94th percentile for aging. Sixty-two percent are over 40 years of age, with 21 percent of that population cohort over 64 years of age. These community characteristics make it older and wealthier than the rest of the nation and might be expected to make the voters more conservative.

In this respect, as demonstrated by the outcome of the vote on the ballot measures, voting is more conservative on fiscal matters, and more liberal on social issues.

Seventy-eight percent of eligible voters in the Palisades were registered to vote in this election. Eighty-one percent of registered voters voted in the recent election compared to only 67 percent of voters in LA County.

Forty-six percent of Pacific Palisades voted by mail.

The high voter turnout gives the community greater influence on election results than their voter registration would suggest.

Fifty-one percent of the voters in the Palisades are registered as Democrats, 28.9 percent are registered as Republicans and 2.8 percent are registered to vote in the minor parties, with 16.9 percent registered as decline-to-state.

This compares to the county’s registration of 51.8 percent registered as Democrats, 18.7 percent registered as Republicans, 25.6 percent registered as independent or decline-to-state, and 3.7 percent registered in the minor parties.

Pacific Palisades is actually less blue, having a higher Republican and lower Independent registration than Los Angeles County as a whole.

In view of the overwhelming Democratic Party Registration in the Palisades, there was a clean sweep of all the California offices at the state and federal levels.

Secretary Clinton received 72.5 percent of the vote; Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, received 22.2 percent.

The minor parties received 5.1 percent.

In races where more than two candidates competed in the Primary, the two highest vote-getters compete in the general election without regard to their party affiliation.

In the race for the United States Senate in California to replace Barbara Boxer, two Democrats emerged from the Primaries. Locally endorsed California Attorney General Kamala Harris received 75.6 percent and United State Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez received 24.4 percent.

In the contest for the 33rd United States Congressional District, incumbent Congressman Ted Lieu received 68 percent of the vote to Republican Kenneth Wright’s 33.5 percent.

Incumbent Assemblymember Richard Bloom received 66 percent of the vote in the 50th State Assembly District contest, besting Republican Mathew Craffey, who received 33 percent of the vote.

There were 17 state and six local ballot measures on a variety of issues.

The Palisades vote reflected a conservative response to issues that would impact the tax rate and supported the measures that generally contributed to the social welfare.

The Palisades voters rejected six of the 17 state measures and two of the six local measures: Ballot Measure 51 (K-12 Community Colleges Facilities funding), Measure 53 (Approval of Revenue Bonds), Measure 55 (Tax Extension for Education and Health Care), Measure 61 (State Prescriptions), Measure 65 (Plastic Bag restrictions), Measure 66 (Reduce Time Delays in Death Penalty Cases) Measure JJJ (Affordable Housing Labor Standards) and Measure SSS (Airport Peace  Officers Pension).

Palisades voters approved Measure 52 (Medi-Cal Hospital Fee), Measure 54 (Legislature Procedures), Measure 56 (Cigarette Tax), Measure 57 (Juvenile Sentencing), Measure 58 (Multi- lingual Education), Measure 59 (Corporate Political Spending), Measure 62 (Elimination of the Death Penalty), Measure 63 (Firearms Control), Measure 64 (Legalize & Control Marijuana use), Measure 67 (Ban on single use Carryout Bags), Measure A (Safe Clean Parks), Measure M (Traffic Improvements), Measure CC (Community College Training Programs), Measure HHH (Homeless Reduction and Prevention) and Measure RRR (Water & Power Authorities).

The chart is a breakdown of the performance of Clinton and Trump in the election precincts comprising the Pacific Palisades community, combined to show the neighborhood where they are located.

It includes postal ballots and other contested votes not included in the first count released a week after the election.