Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Clerk Gets Official’s Vote in Slogan Contest

When Bill Watson went home from his job in Santa Ana City Hall on Thursday, he was in what you might call a liquid position.

Watson hadn’t been drinking. He won a $500 award when his slogan was selected to grace--bilingually--hundreds of buttons and posters that will be used in the city’s campaign to register new voters.

“We were planning to take a vacation at the end of the month, and this won’t hurt,” Watson, an account clerk in the city’s Redevelopment Agency, said after he was given four hundred-dollar bills and a pair of fifties.

Watson’s winning slogan was “Government is by choice--Register to vote.”

Watson, of La Habra, said he didn’t think any of the five slogans he submitted had a chance to win. “But there was one I thought was catchier: ‘Don’t register, don’t vote, don’t complain,’ ” he said.

City employees submitted more than 1,000 entries in the contest, which was judged by a committee of department representatives. City Manager David N. Ream selected Watson’s slogan as the winner from a dozen finalists.

Among those passed over:

- Do it in a booth.

- Vote or get off the pot.

- Don’t be a dope, you’ve got to vote.

- Make Santa Ana the top banana: Vote today.

The Santiago Club of Santa Ana donated the $500 award.