An updated rundown on council history

Just how many of Yorba Linda’s 40,576 registered voters will cast ballots in Tuesday’s election is hard to predict.

In last June’s primary, which featured the hotly contested Right-to-Vote initiative (Measure B), only 13,940 residents (35 percent) voted.

But in the 2004 presidential year, 32,564 (81 percent) cast ballots, and in the 2002 non-presidential year, 16,801 (48 percent) voted.

The number of Yorba Lindans who cast absentee ballots compared to those who vote at the polls is climbing, from 17 percent in 2002 to 36 percent in 2004 to 48 percent in June, so maybe about half of this election’s voters have already marked their ballots by now.

For the record, here’s an updated look at the past 20 City Council elections:

1967: Roland Bigonger, Burt Brooks, Whit Cromwell, Bill Ross and Herb Warren win a scramble among 27 candidates for five seats in the first municipal election.

1970: Bigonger and Cromwell win second terms, but Brooks, Ross and Warren lose to Rudy Castro, George Machado and Hank Wedaa as 18 candidates seek the five seats.

1972: Castro wins a second term, joined by Dale Chaput and Carolyn Ewing. Bigonger and Cromwell aren’t among eight candidates running for three seats.

1974: Cromwell returns for a third term and Wedaa wins a second. Machado isn’t among nine candidates contesting two seats.

1976: Chaput wins a second term, joined by Irwin Fried and Doug Groot. Castro and Ewing aren’t among 11 candidates seeking three seats.

1978: Wedaa wins a third term, joined by Rob Cromwell. Groot loses. Rob is the nephew of Whit, who isn’t among seven candidates vying for two positions.

1980: Fried wins a second term, joined by Ron McRoberts and Todd Murphy. Chaput isn’t among six candidates running for two seats.

1982: Wedaa wins a fourth term, joined by current water board director Mike Beverage. Cromwell isn’t among six candidates contesting six seats.

1984: Fried wins a third term and Murphy a second. Gene Wisner, appointed to replace McRoberts in 1983, wins a full term as nine candidates seek three seats.

1986: Bigonger returns for a third term and Wedaa wins a fifth. Beverage isn’t among five candidates contending for two seats.

1988: Fried wins a fourth term and Wisner a second full term, joined by Mark Schwing. Murphy isn’t among five candidates vying for three seats.

1990: Wedaa wins a sixth term, joined by John Gullixson. Bigonger loses as six candidates seek two seats.

1992: Schwing wins a second term, joined by Barbara Kiley and Dan Welch. Fried loses and Wisner isn’t among five candidates contesting three seats.

1994: Wisner returns for a third full term and Gullixson wins a second. Wedaa isn’t among four candidates seeking two seats.

1996: Wedaa returns for a seventh term, Schwing wins a third and Kiley a second. Welch loses as eight candidates go after three seats.

1998: Wisner wins a fourth full term and Gullixson a second as six candidates vie for two seats.

2000: In March, Ken Ryan tops seven candidates running to replace Wisner, who resigned in 1999. In November, Allen Castellano, Mike Duvall and Jim Winder win from 10 candidates seeking three seats. Schwing loses; Wedaa retires.

2002: Ryan wins a full term, joined by Keri Wilson. Gullixson isn’t among the eight candidates contesting two seats.

2004: Castellano, Duvall and Winder win second terms as five candidates seek three seats.