Editorial:

Katherine Nakamura represents District B, San Diego Unified School Board. She was up for re-election this year. Unfortunately she was not one of the two top vote-getters in the Primary Election and as such will not be elected to a third term.

   Nakamura, not happy with the outcome, is crying foul. She states her reasons for losing her re-election bid as being that she was focused on the budget and did not mount a re-election campaign and that the election rules are outdated. Nakamura went to court to allow her to mount a write in campaign for the General Election to give herself one more chance at fighting to keep her seat on the school board.

   The chances of a write-in campaign being successful are next to slim and none…

   San Diego School Board elections have Primary and General elections. The top two vote-getters in each district move on to the general election, unless one candidate receives 50%+ of the votes. In the general election, the entire San Diego region – not just District B – has a say in which candidate becomes the board member.

   Nakamura is hoping that with an aggressive campaign she can circumvent the will of District B voters. The fact that she is mounting a write-in campaign smacks of nothing more than a sore loser, and if by chance she does win, this would set an extremely bad precedent for future elections.

   Nakamura is right in one aspect: the election rules are archaic and need to be changed. The first change that should be made would be to keep the elections truly district only elections. Having the Primary as district only and then going to a city-wide election in the General changes the whole dynamic of the race, not to mention the significantly greater cost of running a city-wide race.

   Nakamura has until Oct. 19 to gather 200 signatures to qualify as a write-in candidate. Let’s hope that Nakamura comes to her senses, takes the high road and ends the write-in effort. The voters of District B have spoken.