Los Angeles City Council members can hold a lot of weight for many of the issues you care about. For example, they approve budgets for law enforcement agencies, and decide whether or not to enforce arrests of unhoused people who camp out in certain areas in their district.

But not everyone will have the L.A. City Council — or the L.A. mayor — on their ballot this election. Here’s why you might not.

First and foremost: Voters only vote on L.A. City Council seats or the L.A. mayor's race if they live in the city of L.A.

Many people who have "Los Angeles" in their mailing address live in unincorporated L.A. County, not the city of L.A. That means they won't vote for L.A. City Council.

But even if you do live in the city of L.A., you still might not be voting in any L.A. City Council races this June.

That's because L.A. City Council terms are staggered. This June, there are eight City Council seats on the ballot. So you'd need to live within one of these eight districts to see the race on your ballot. The rest of the City Council members are not up for election this year. You can use this handy tool to look up your district using your address or cross streets. (We like this tool because it will also tell you about your other elected officials and districts, such as which Los Angeles County supervisorial district you live in.) You can also look up your location on this map:

Keep reading for a list of all the L.A. City Council races on the ballot, with links to our voter guides for each election.

A closer look at the L.A. City Council races on the ballot

Here are the L.A. City Council races that will appear on the June 2 primary ballot. Candidates who win more than 50% of the vote June 2 will be sworn into office in December. If no candidate wins more than 50%, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held Nov. 3.

• District 1
  
  • This district runs from Pico-Union to Northeast Los Angeles, covering all or parts of 22 city-designated neighborhoods.
• District 3
  
  • The district is located in the southwestern corner of the San Fernando Valley and includes Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Winnetka and Reseda.
• District 5
  
  • This district makes up much of Los Angeles’ Westside, and is bounded on the north by Mulholland Drive, on the west by the 405 Freeway and on the east and south, in part, by Beverly Hills and Culver City. 
• District 7
  
  • This district covers the northeast part of the San Fernando Valley including Sylmar, Mission Hills, Pacoima, Sunland-Tujunga, Lake View Terrace, Shadow Hills, La Tuna Canyon and a portion of North Hills East.
• District 9
  
  • This district follows the Harbor Freeway from the south end of downtown Los Angeles through Historic South Central, South Park, Florence, University Park, Exposition Park and Vermont-Slauson. 
• District 11
  
  • This district covers the area west of the 405 Freeway to the coast, surrounding the city of Santa Monica and unincorporated Marina del Rey and extending north into the Santa Monica Mountains.
• District 13
  
  • This district includes much of Hollywood and almost two dozen officially recognized neighborhoods in the contiguous areas of East Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Elysian Heights. It also includes the Northeast L.A. communities of Elysian Valley, Atwater Village and Glassell Park. 
• District 15
  
  • The oddly shaped 15th Council District is dominated by the Port of Los Angeles, Harbor Gateway, Harbor City, Wilmington, San Pedro and Watts.

Other L.A. races

If you've figured out you do live in the city of L.A., here are a few other races you might be interested in:

• L.A. mayor
• L.A. city attorney
• L.A. city controller
• Measure CB: What you need to know about the city's proposed tax on unlicensed cannabis businesses
• Measure TC: What you need to know about the city's proposed update to the transient occupancy tax
• Measure TT: What you need to know about the city's proposed increase on hotel room taxes

Still not sure?

You can always confirm what should be on your ballot by accessing your sample ballot. If you aren't registered to vote yet, you can also look up your sample ballot by address.

Contact the L.A. County Elections office if you suspect any problems with your ballot.

If you have a question that’s not being addressed this election cycle, ask us! You can submit your question by using the form below and the Voter Game Plan team will do our best to get you an answer.

This story was written by a former LAist staff writer, Adriana Pera, and published in 2024. This story has been updated continuously since then.