Manhattan Beach voters turned out in strong numbers to vote in last week's special election regarding Proposition 50, which authorizes temporary changes to congressional district maps.

Local voters voted "yes" on the measure by 63% to 37%, according to the first counts published November 5, in the early morning hours after polls closed. 

Those totals only slightly lag the latest statewide results, which show Prop. 50 garnering 64% of the vote. Los Angeles County as a whole supported Prop. 50 with 74% of the vote, according to the latest figures.

Although the redistricting proposition was the only thing on the ballot, Manhattan Beach voters appear to have found the election so compelling that they turned out to vote at a higher rate than for several other recent elections.

The first overnight totals showed that 12,813 out of 26,928 voters in Manhattan Beach had already cast their ballot and had it counted, putting initial turnout at 47.6%. That figure is already near to the final, local turnout for the two most recent statewide presidential primary elections (March 2020 and March 2024), both of which came in under 50%.

As later-arriving ballots are counted, voter turnout figures rise. For example, the initial overnight totals counted for the November 2024 election in Manhattan Beach turned out to represent about 73% of the totals that were eventually tallied.

If later-counted ballots trickle in at the same pace for this year's Prop. 50 election, MB News projects that local turnout could actually hit or exceed 65%. That would put the turnout on par with the November 2022 statewide election, and well above recent primary elections. (We're not certain that the dynamics of this single-issue election will lead to so many late-counted ballots, however.)

This year's total turnout could more than double voter turnout from the last municipal election in March 2019, where just 28.1% of local voters cast ballots for city council. (Those races now appear on November ballots.)

Local Voters Prefer Mail Ballots

The statewide movement toward use of mail ballots, which can be completed at home and either dropped in the mail or placed into drop boxes, has certainly been welcomed by Manhattan Beach voters.

According to only the initial tallies, 86% of Manhattan Beach ballots were mail ballots, while just 14% of the votes counted were cast in person. 

The share of mail ballots will only grow as more ballots are processed, verified and added to the totals. 

MB News will return to this topic with final totals after the election is certified in early December.

Past Election Results

MB News covered the November 2024 elections in detail, with stories about the final results for local/county elections here, and the final results for state and national issues here.