Actor has poor voting record

Schwarzenegger didn't cast ballot in 5 of past 11 elections
Robert Salladay, Carla Marinucci, James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Actor has poor voting record Schwarzenegger didn't cast ballot in 5 of past 11 elections

Arnold Schwarzenegger, labeled by polls the early leader in California's recall election, did not vote in five of the past 11 statewide elections, records revealed Monday.

Schwarzenegger aides said they were researching four of those five elections to see why absentee ballots were requested by the actor but not recorded as being received by elections officials. They said the actor, an Austrian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 1983, takes voting seriously.

The Los Angeles County registrar of voters said Schwarzenegger, who lives in Brentwood, voted in six of the statewide and presidential elections going back to 1992. He voted in the 2002 primary and the general election, which included a successful ballot initiative he sponsored on after-school programs and the re-election of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

But the actor did not return absentee ballots for the 2000 general and primary elections after requesting them, the registrar said, meaning Schwarzenegger twice missed a chance to vote for President Bush. He did not vote in the June 1998 primary, which included a successful initiative banning bilingual education, records show.

Hopefully they will put this to good use.

:wtf: