Young Angelenos, a small group of volunteer citizen activists, has compiled a no-bull progressives’ voter guide for the LA primary election on March 5
Wait, nope, hardly any of them are.
Sure, our generation has been known to get involved in an election or two, but at the local level, we have a predictably dismal turnout. We’re not alone—turnouts for local elections, like the one Los Angeles has coming up on March 5, rarely exceeds 30 percent turnout, usually hovers around 20 percent, and often can dip down to crazy-low numbers like seven or eight percent. That means that the elections that dictate the direction of the second largest city in our nation can often be decided by tens of thousands of votes, and, in some cases, hundreds.
For instance, in 2009, last time there was a local election in LA, mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti won his seat in the 13th Council District (which represents Silver Lake, Hollywood, Atwater Village, Echo Park, etc...) by 5,279 votes.
What we are trying to say, is that in some cases, elections in LA can be decided by the amount of people in your and your friends’ online social networks.
There’s a power here we're overlooking—the power to decide who is going to be in charge of governing the very streets we live on, the schools that our children will attend, how we will move around the city, our air quality, and the quality of our jobs. The truth is, who governs our city can often affect our lives more than who governs our country.
So... we want to make it easy for you to get educated and get a’votin’. Young Angelenos, a small group of volunteer citizen activists, has compiled a no-bull progressives’ voter guide for the Los Angeles primary election on March 5th. We hope you’ll check out who is running in your district, decide who you want to represent you, and share with your friends. And, yeah, go vote.
Some disclaimers: This guide is a volunteer operation, not produced by GOOD Magazine. Due to research fatigue, lame candidate websites and Murphy’s Law, you may spot a mistake or two. Some candidates simply don’t provide a lot of info, and our researcher styles varied, so some profiles may differ or seem a bit incomplete.
We didn’t get to all the candidates, but we tried to cover the ones who seemed most relevant to young people in Los Angeles. This guide was compiled using public sources, including government and candidate websites. Its accuracy is contingent on those sources at the time of publication (February 2013).
If you have more info, or an opinion that you want to share, we urge you to make a comment. This is your election as much as it is ours.
Happy voting!
Your volunteers,
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