A special election to fill the vacant City Council seat representing downtown Berkeley will be held on May 28 — well after many of the district’s student residents leave for summer break.
The City Council voted unanimously to set the election date Thursday over the objections of student advocates, who argued it would stifle turnout by young people who are likely to move out of the district temporarily after UC Berkeley’s spring semester ends May 10.
City officials said it wouldn’t be feasible to set an earlier date for the election in Council District 4. They noted mail ballots will be sent to the district’s voters starting April 29, giving students an opportunity to cast their votes before the semester ends.
The election was prompted by the unexpected resignation of Councilmember Kate Harrison, who held office from 2017 until she stepped down less than halfway through her second term. Harrison’s final day of work was last Friday.
She was the second councilmember in the span of a few weeks to abruptly resign, joining Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who left office in January. The election to replace Robinson will be held April 16 in Council District 7, which covers the campus-adjacent Southside neighborhood.
The back-to-back resignations mean two council districts with large student populations have no dedicated representative on the body, and will elect new leaders in special races where voter turnout could be low. Council District 4 covers Berkeley’s diverse core, including downtown, where demand for student housing has driven an apartment building boom, and several neighborhoods to the north and west with a larger share of homeowners.
Rules spelled out in Berkeley’s city charter in effect required that the election to replace Harrison be held sometime between April 29 and May 29.
The Associated Students of the University of California, UC Berkeley’s student government, called on city officials to move the election up to April 30. Alex Edgar, an ASUC vice president, told the council Thursday that the May 28 date seemed to be a “deliberate attempt to disenfranchise young voters.”
While students have the option to mail their ballots or drop them off at collection boxes before leaving for the summer break, several advocates said younger and first-time voters are more likely to need in-person help, which won’t be available until a voting center opens shortly before Election Day.
“It’s hard enough to get student turnout,” law student Geneva Lee said during a public comment period at Thursday’s meeting. “With a special election especially, there’s not going to be high voter turnout — so we have to be doing everything we possibly can do to make sure that people turn out to vote.”
Mayor Jesse ArreguÃn and other council members denied the suggestion they were intentionally seeking to discourage young people from voting.
Staff in the city clerk’s office, which is also planning for the District 7 special election, said the May 28 election date was chosen to allow enough time for candidates to qualify for the ballot, voters to learn about who’s running and administrators to prepare election materials. They estimate it will cost $146,000 to run the election.
“It is not our intent to disenfranchise people or minimize participation,” ArreguÃn said. “We want to maximize participation — but we also have to administer an election.”
The deadline for candidates to qualify for the ballot is March 29. Whoever is elected will serve the rest of Harrison’s term, which runs through 2026.
