a man wearing a earpod

Last Minute Reminders about Voting

J.T.Leave a comment

With only seven days to go before Election Day, according to California’s Secretary of State, as of Monday, February 26th, at least 5.7 million Vote By Mail ballots have reached voters’ mailboxes in Los Angeles County. Out of this bunch, some 311,853 ballots, or 5% of all ballots mailed, have been returned. For the 95% of the rest of you, then, here are just a handful of brief reminders from the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office.

On Your Ballot

  • You do not have to vote in every race.
  • Vote-by-mail ballots can be returned by mail, at a drop-off location, or your county elections office.
  • Vote centers open for early in-person voting in all Voter’s Choice Act counties (which applies to L.A. County) beginning on February 24, 2024.
  • Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by March 12, 2024.

Write-In Candidates

  • A voter is entitled to cast a vote for a qualified write-in candidate for any party-nominated, voter-nominated, or nonpartisan office by writing, on the write-in portion of the ballot, the name of the qualified candidate.
  • To add a candidate, fill in the circle to the left of “Write-In Candidate” and write the name on the dotted line.
  • A list of qualified write-in candidates is available eleven days before the election here.

Additional Note On Last Minute Voting

  • Here’s an example to consider. If you’re registered with California’s Democratic Party, but between now and Election Day on March 5th, you have a change of heart regarding your choice for the Presidency and actually want to vote for say, Claudia De La Cruz, of the Peace and Freedom Party. Can you can write her name on the dotted line below the “Write-In Candidate” bubble on your Vote by Mail ballot and have that counted as an official vote for De La Cruz? NO, YOU CANNOT. However, you can still manage to vote for De La Cruz under Conditional Voter Registration (CVR).
  • Find De La Cruz’s name and other Qualified Candidates whose names will appear on L.A. County ballots, including for the presidential race and more here.

Conditional Voter Registration

From the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office:

  • Any eligible voter can go to any Vote Center in the County during the 11-day voting period.
  • Once at the Vote Center, the eligible voter [can] complete the CVR application.
  • The voter is then issued a CVR ballot to take to the new fully accessible Ballot Marking Device (like a voting iPad).
  • The voter’s experience reading and marking their ballot will be the same, however after the voter prints their paper ballot they will be instructed to return their paper ballot to an Election Worker.
  • As soon as the CVR application is verified, their ballot will be counted and the registration will become active.
  • The voter may then vote in any future election in which they are eligible to participate.

Tracking Your Vote

  • After submitting your vote, you can sign up to know the status of your ballot on the California Secretary of State’s part here.

For other questions, comments, or concerns, you can reach out to your local Vote Center, which should have more specific details on any of these particulars.

Otherwise, happy voting, Los Angeles!

J.T.

cheeseburger with red onion tomato and lettuce

L.A.’s Democratic Whopper is grilling near you

J.T.Leave a comment

Are you ready? As of Wednesday, December 5th, there are just 90 days before L.A.’s March 5th primary election takes place throughout vote centers in Los Angeles and L.A. County (and 62 days before mail-in ballots reach voters). Offices up for election include:

L.A. City Council

Districts 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14.

LAUSD

Seats 1, 3, 5 and 7.

L.A. County Board of Supervisors

Districts 2, 4 and 5.

L.A. County District Attorney

District Attorney‘s office.

Superior Court Judge offices throughout greater L.A. County

Offices 39, 48, 93, 97, 115, 124, 130, 135, and 137.

In L.A., at least one ballot measure*

The measure is on street improvements for the City Mobility Plan.

U.S. House of Representatives

Seats up for election include the 23rd, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th districts, and the 31st, 32nd, and 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, as well as the 42nd, 43rd, 44th, and 45th districts.

California State Senators

In the 23rd, 25th, 27th, 33rd and 35th Districts.

California State Assembly Members

In the 34th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 46th, 48th, 49th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 61st, 62nd, 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th and 69th Districts.

Had enough yet?

Call it a true whopper of the democratic process, the way only the largest county in the United States per capita can do it. Subscribe to J.T. the L.A. Storyteller for more updates soon.

*An earlier version of this article noted two ballot measures for March 2024, but there will actually be just one following a retraction from L.A. City Hall.

J.T.

white roll up door

Here are all the areas in the city of L.A. still zoned only for Single-Family Homes

J.T.Leave a comment

In a study conducted by the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley last year, researchers found that “78% of residential land in the Greater Los Angeles region and 74% in the city of Los Angeles itself was zoned exclusively for single-family homes, prohibiting apartment buildings and other multifamily developments.”

Image/Map/Data is courtesy of the Othering & Belonging Institute of UC Berkeley, California.

Additionally: “Consistent with prior research, which we summarized in our report, we found a disturbing relationship between the degree of single-family zoning, racial demographics, and racial segregation. In particular, we found that restrictive zoning had a strong exclusionary effect. We found, for example, that municipalities with the highest percentage of single-family-only zoned residential areas had the highest percentage of white residents and the lowest percentage of Black and Latino residents. We also found that the highest observed levels of racial residential segregation occurred in the communities with the highest proportion of single-family zoning.”

Find and download the full report here.

J.T.

city buildings under the blue sky

L.A. County’s Population Still Towers Over 80% of the U.S.

J.T.1 Comment
StatePopulation
Alaska578,803
Vermont623,989
Wyoming645,570
D.C.670,050
South Dakota732,673
Rhode Island774,948
North Dakota895,376
West Virginia1,003,084
Maine1,095,610
New Hampshire1,104,271
Delaware1,372,447
Mississippi1,388,992
Montana1,441,553
Hawaii1,782,959
Idaho1,900,923
Nebraska1,963,692
Kansas2,934,582
New Mexico2,949,965
Arkansas3,025,891
Nevada3,143,991
Iowa3,193,079
Utah3,337,975
Connecticut3,605,597
Oklahoma3,986,639
Oregon4,246,155
Kentucky4,509,394
Louisiana4,624,047
Alabama5,039,877
South Carolina5,100,000
Minnesota5,707,390
Colorado5,812,069
Wisconsin5,895,908
Maryland6,165,129
Missouri6,168,187
Indiana6,805,985
Tennessee6,975,218
Massachusetts6,984,723
Arizona7,276,316
Washington7,738,692
Virginia8,642,274
New Jersey9,267,130
L.A. County9,934,710
Michigan10,050,811
North Carolina10,551,162
Georgia10,799,566
Ohio11,780,017
Illinois12,671,469
Pennsylvania12,964,056
New York19,835,913
Florida21,781,128
Texas29,527,941
California39,237,836

Although L.A. County and California recently lost a Congressional seat (and electoral college vote) due to the rising cost of living here over the last decade, it remains the case that both supply the U.S. with unmatched people power and economic activity.

If both were suddenly removed from the union, the U.S. would instantly lose 14% of its total economy and also go from a nation of 330 million people to 291 million. The 40 states behind in terms of population and D.C.’s combined area also amount to 2.8 million of the 3.8 million square miles (land and water areas included) that comprise the United States.

In other words, if one of those 1950s Martian men suddenly crashed their ship in the contiguous U.S.–including Alaska– it’d need to scour through at least 74% of the nation’s land and water before finding a region as populous as L.A. County. Moreover, while the state of Michigan–which voted for Trump in 2016–holds a population just slightly higher than that of L.A. County at 10 million, it takes 96,700 square miles of that state’s area to situate its residents, while L.A. County places its 9.9 million people with only 4,700 square miles.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, June 2021

J.T.

aerial view of a bridge

L.A. County’s GDP is ahead of 43 U.S. States

J.T.4 Comments

As of Quarter 4 of 2020, while accounting for only three percent (4,753 square miles) of California’s land mass (155,959 square miles), L.A. County’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or value of economic output was at least $659 billion, larger than that of 43 different U.S. States and Washington D.C. in the same year.

StateGDP
Vermont$34 billion
Wyoming$37 billion
Alaska$51 billion
Montana$53 billion
North Dakota$55 billion
South Dakota$57 billion
Rhode Island$63 billion
Maine$72 billion
Delaware$77 billion
West Virginia$80 billion
Hawaii$83 billion
Idaho$88 billion
New Hampshire$92 billion
New Mexico$101 billion
Mississippi$118 billion
Arkansas$135 billion
Nebraska$140 billion
Washington, D.C.$147 billion
Nevada$176 billion
Kansas$181 billion
Oklahoma$192 billion
Iowa$202 billion
Utah$207 billion
Kentucky$220 billion
Alabama$234 billion
Louisiana$238 billion
Oregon$250 billion
South Carolina$254 billion
Connecticut$283 billion
Missouri$340 billion
Wisconsin$348 billion
Minnesota$383 billion
Tennessee$384 billion
Arizona$389 billion
Indiana$389 billion
Colorado$391 billion
Maryland$417 billion
Michigan$532 billion
Virginia$565 billion
Massachusetts$599 billion
North Carolina$608 billion
Washington$620 billion
New Jersey$632 billion
Georgia$637 billion
Los Angeles County$659 billion
Ohio$698 billion
Pennsylvania$793 billion
Illinois$877 billion
Florida$1.1 trillion
New York$1.7 trillion
Texas$1.8 trillion
California$3.1 trillion

The only states with a larger GDP than L.A. County’s in 2020 were Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, New York state, Texas, and California itself. If L.A. County were its own nation-state, California’s Quarter 4 GDP would shrink from $3.1 trillion to $2.3 trillion, retaining its number one position in the U.S. economy, but lying just $500 billion dollars away in output from second-place Texas instead of its current lead against the lone-star state of $1.3 trillion. Also, as of 2020, L.A. County contained at least 10 million residents; the 43 states behind in terms of GDP, and Washington D.C., by contrast, contained under 183 million people, or 55% of the U.S. population.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, March 2022

J.T.