The Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly hosted a straw poll in front of a Canyon Country shopping center Saturday to see, as one constituent said, what local voters are thinking for April’s City Council election.

“Straw polls give us a chance to be involved,” Canyon Country resident Berta Gonzalez-Harper said. “This gives us an idea of where we stand as a community.”

Gonzalez-Harper likened voting in straw polls to reading Consumer Reports before purchasing a car.

Straw polls allow citizens a nonbinding vote that helps gauge candidate support and see how the public is reacting to campaign efforts thus far.

Challenging each other for a seat on the City Council are TimBen Boydston, Mayor Laurie Ender, Ed Colley, Jon Hatami and Bob Kellar.

“The No. 1 question for me is what can you do to make the city of Santa Clarita better,” Gonzalez-Harper said. “The most important question in any political election should be ‘what is the best thing and the right thing to do for the citizens?’ Straw polls help us figure that out.”

Saturday’s straw poll was from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and by 1;30 p.m., more than 180 people had cast a vote, SCV Republican Assembly president Wendy Albright said.

Albright described the current state of local political affairs as “very contentious.”

“People who are engaged have been deluged with elitism,” Albright said. “The constituents have mistreated on local and federal levels, and this goes for Democrats, as well.

Straw polls give citizens a chance to redress this imbalance and get involved on a local level, Albright said.

“For years, we tried to make changes on a federal level, but it’s really starts locally,” she said. “We have to get more politicians to represent the people.”

City Council candidates who visited local straw polls thus far have been were Boydston and Kellar, Albright said.

All recent straw votes should be tallied by Monday evening, Albright said.

The SCV Republican Assembly will host another straw poll at the Valencia Westfield Town Center today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.