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How you can help LAist watchdog your elected officials
"I Voted" stickers in multiple language at a Los Angeles polling place.
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Robyn Beck
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AFP via Getty Images
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This is an excerpt from our pop-up election newsletter Make It Make Sense.
Most of the November 2024 election is over, despite the agonizing wait for final results. But until then, we’ve got an eye on the next phase of the election: holding our elected officials accountable.
Accountability is already a big part of LAist’s journalism. We follow major initiatives, spotlight critical gaps in protecting communities or preventing disasters, and uncover corruption scandals. But we’re particularly interested in better understanding the everyday work our representatives are doing — or not doing. Even if your city council member never makes headlines for a controversy, they’re making critical decisions all the time over how much housing is in your neighborhood, where and how you travel through the city and how much funding goes to police or homelessness services. The same goes for your school board, your district attorney, and more.
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As LAist’s civics and democracy producer, my job is to make local government more accessible to Angelenos. This work starts with knowing what you, the voters, want to keep tabs on.
Fill out the quick survey at the bottom of this post to let us know what you’re most interested in tracking as this next term gets underway. You can also share this link with anyone else you know who might want to share their thoughts, too. Here are some of the questions you can weigh in on:
- What measures or officials from the 2024 ballot do you want LAist to track?
- Is there specific information you want us to look for?
- What questions do you have about any of the measures we passed or officials we elected?
Additionally, one of our next projects will be developing a tracker for members of the L.A. City Council. It’s one of the most powerful local governments in the nation, with 15 members representing more than 4 million people. And yet when we talk to voters, most have no idea who their city representatives are, let alone how they’re shaping residents’ lives.
Here are some ideas for what we could include in an at-a-glance snapshot of a city council member’s time in office:
- How they voted on major legislation
- How much affordable housing they approved in their district
- Pedestrian fatalities over time in their district
- How they’re spending discretionary funds
Have any more ideas to add? You can let us know in the survey below.
Did LAist help you vote? Member support made these voter guides possible.
Our election coverage is focused on you: helping you understand the results of these races and their impact on our everyday lives. And we don’t stop there, even after results are in, you need a source of trusted reporting that will hold those in power to account and shine a light on issues important to our communities.
Even after the last ballot is cast, LAist reporting and voting guides are here for you. But we need to hear from you now with your support to know that this work we’re doing is important.
We cannot do this essential work without your help. We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
At a time when the need for local journalism has never been greater, many newsrooms are facing cutbacks, including LAist. Member support — your support — is what will sustain a free press in Southern California.
LAist’s mission is to be here for you, so please be here for us now with a donation to power our trusted local reporting. Step up right now and make the choice to give. Because that’s exactly what it is — a choice. It's a choice with consequences. If readers do not choose to step up and donate, the future of fact-based news in Southern California will not be as strong.
No matter what happens in the world, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust.
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What questions do you have about this election?
You ask, and we'll answer: Whether it's about how to interpret the results or track your ballot, we're here to help you understand the 2024 general election on Nov. 5.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
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