HTLA: LA Voter Guide + A Lighthouse Surprise

Episode 29

Brian De Los Santos  00:00

All right, LA. [music in] There's an election going on. Time to get you ready.

Brian De Los Santos  00:06

This is How to LA, where we drop a little knowledge about the city with every episode. I'm Brian De Los Santos. There are a lot of things on the ballot this fall from high profile candidate races, like the next mayor of Los Angeles, to big issues, like whether or not to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. All of these things could have an impact on your everyday life, or the life of someone you love. But, good news- my colleagues over at LAist have a guide to help you out. We call it the Voter Game Plan, and it's got all sorts of information about each race. What elected officials are responsible for, what makes a good candidate, who's running, and a lot more. There's a whole bunch of background on all these confusing propositions, too. We got real people answering those questions, and they'll get back to you. So if you got one just hit us up. And that's actually what we're gonna touch upon today, a voter's FAQ and get some real answers. My colleague, Ariel Zirulnick, is gonna help us out with that. She's the Senior Editor for Community Engagement at LAist.

Brian De Los Santos  01:07

Hey, Ariel. What's up?

Ariel Zirulnick  01:09

Hello.

Brian De Los Santos  01:09

I'm so excited to have you in studio today.

Ariel Zirulnick  01:12

[laughing] Thank you. [music out] I've never done this before. So let's see how it goes.

Brian De Los Santos  01:16

So elections are right around the corner. We basically just have a few days, and we really want to understand what questions people are asking. I know you're leading a big project, Voter Game Plan, for us here at LAist, and I hear that you're getting a lot of questions about the judicial races, like Superior Court Judge and the California Courts of Appeal. Why do you think there's so many questions about this topic?

Ariel Zirulnick  01:39

I think it comes down to the fact that there's just not a lot of accessible information out there to help voters make a decision. There's not a lot of campaign advertising, because the candidates are very wary of politicizing these seats. And these are non- partisan seats, so the voters don't even have some basic information, like a candidate's party affiliation, which is something that a lot of voters use as a filter for making a decision when they get their ballot. I think it's also the fact that it's sort of a mystery, what many of these judges do and what qualities they need to have in order to be good at that job. That's why our guides to the Superior Court and appellate justices also include an overview of what they actually do, not just who's running.

Brian De Los Santos  02:18

So I know the voting process is a little bit, can be complicated? You know on How to LA, we love pro tips. Do you have any extra guidance to help people through this voting process?

Ariel Zirulnick  02:28

So there are a few things that you have on hand to make decisions. For the judicial races, the LA County Bar Association releases ratings of each candidate. My colleague, Caitlin Hernandez, our LA Explained Reporter, has done a great guide to those ratings that you can find on the Voter Game Plan. You can also look at who's endorsed these candidates. While they don't have political affiliations or party affiliations, you often see that political parties and other sort of civic organizations will endorse individual candidates. So you could look at what those organizations stand for, and what it might say about the candidate. Um, and you can also look at their past experiences. Maybe they've been a judge before. They have trial experience. You might look at whether they have history as a prosecutor or a defense attorney.

Brian De Los Santos  03:09

So tomorrow, we're gonna go even deeper on the judge races. But one more question for you on this. I understand that one of the most often asked questions is: How does one choose 'yes or no' on the judges who are not running against anyone?

Ariel Zirulnick  03:23

Yeah, so these appellate justice races, um, they're unusual in that they're what you call retention races. So instead of voting between two candidates, the governor appoints these justices, and then we decide whether we're okay with that choice. Big picture, the factors that you want to consider aren't all that different. You can look at some of the cases that they've heard in the past and how they ruled to get a sense of how they approached the work.

Brian De Los Santos  03:43

Right. So stepping away from judges, other races people are asking about are the ones for LA City Council seats. Obviously, given what's been happening, it's been the news quite a bit, and there are four open seats. But what some people want to know is: Why isn't the LA City Council on their ballot?

Ariel Zirulnick  04:00

Yeah, it's funny to get this question, right, because it seems like it should be so obvious, but it's actually not nearly as obvious as it should be. There are two reasons that someone might not see city council on their ballot. The first might be that they don't actually live in the city of LA. [Brian: Mmm hmm.] In many cases, someone who lives in unincorporated LA County is still gonna have a mailing address that says Los Angeles. And when you have a hot race, like the LA mayor race, or big news like we've had with the city council, all of LA County is going to be hearing about it, even if they don't live in the city of LA limits. So they'll get their ballots, and they look for it, and they're confused about why it's not there. We got a ton of questions in June asking why the LA mayor race wasn't on their ballot, for example, and it comes down to the same reason. But there's another reason that they might not have the city council on their ballot, and that's that not all 15 seats go up for a vote at once. They have staggered terms. Only districts 5, 11, 13 and 15 are gonna be on your ballot this time.

Brian De Los Santos  04:54

Alright, so one last question, and this is about mechanics. Uh, you had a mom write in and tell you about her college age kids that registered to vote in the states where, where they attended school, but they also received mail-in ballots at their parents' address because that's where they had been registered to vote before. Does that matter? Can people be registered in two states?

Ariel Zirulnick  05:14

The short answer is: Yes, it's okay to be registered in two states. You just can't vote in two states. If you don't call up the board of elections office in your former county and ask them to remove you from the voter rolls, you might continue to stay registered in that county. However, you are supposed to vote in your state of residence. So if you've moved, don't try to vote in that place that you used to live. You need to vote in the place that you live now. College students are an [music in] exception to this. They kind of are in this in between place. [Brian: Mmm hmm.] In many cases, including here in California, it's okay for college students to vote either at their traditional home address, probably the place where their parents live where they maybe registered to vote when they turned 18, or to go and register at their school address. Most important thing is that they vote, and they only vote once.

Brian De Los Santos  06:03

Bonus question just for me because I'm curious. Some people may not be super thrilled to vote, whether it's the process or [ ] they just feel like they're not being heard. Why do you feel like people in LA should vote this fall?

Ariel Zirulnick  06:15

I mean, everybody knows why they should be voting in midterm elections, congressional races, but these local races that are on your ballot really matter too, and they affect your day to day lives. You hear how different people's experiences are with neighborhood safety based on who their city council member is. The city controller monitors spending when a new tax happens and how that money is spent and whether it's being spent the way that voters expected it to be spent. Who is in these positions really matters. It's not just this sort of toss-up.

Brian De Los Santos  06:49

Ariel, thank you so much for coming in.

Ariel Zirulnick  06:51

Absolutely. Let me know if there is anything else you need from me.

Brian De Los Santos  06:58

Okay, y'all. That was just a little taste of what the Voter Game Plan is. If you want more information, head on over at LAist.com/vote and subscribe to the How to LA newsletter because we know we got you covered on all things voting as we go into election season. All right, we've thrown a lot at you in the last few weeks about voting, news, and everything. How about a little breather? [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  07:22

[takes a breath] Let's go outside. [beach ambi] If you're anything like me, you might be trying to find a cheap date spot to hang out with bae, or you might just want to get the kids out of the house. Well, we're gonna hook you up. This is the start of a new series on How to Get Outdoors in LA. And we're putting listeners in the driver's seat to show us around LA's backyard.

Brian De Los Santos  07:43

[music in] Today, we're taking a little road trip, windows down, summer mix blasting. We're headed to the bluffs in Palos Verdes. Well first of all, I've never been here and it's so clear. It's a pretty sunny afternoon and it's just- It looks like a painting. The ocean is just blue. This is LA, like this is just our city. [music out] [beach ambi] We're at a place called Point Vicente. It's right on the edge of a cliff overlooking a rocky beach.

Lyn Watanabe  08:11

It's a really nice day. You get to see Catalina Island. You don't always get to see it that clearly. [laughs]

Brian De Los Santos  08:20

We're here meeting with a listener.

Lyn Watanabe  08:22

My name is Lyn Watanabe, and I'm just a South Bay local. I live in Torrance, and I like to come out here to Palos Verdes when I want to either work out, get a hike in, or just relax, because you just kind of grow up coming here. Sometimes with family, we used to go to the tide pools. I'm not sure it's legal to [laughs] harvest things anymore but we, we used to come get like the sea snails and things like that. We would just steam 'em and eat them and you like have to uncoil 'em out. You know, high school, we would all [laughing] come here to hang out 'cause it's quiet. It's really beautiful at sunset. That's my favorite time to be out here.

Brian De Los Santos  09:06

She has her whole routine down. First, she parked her car at Vanderlip Park off of Palos Verdes Drive.

Lyn Watanabe  09:13

Well really this is uh, my parking hack. [laughs]

Brian De Los Santos  09:18

It's a free spot y'all. Just FYI.

Lyn Watanabe  09:20

I usually come and I walk through Terranea, the resort because that's really beautifully um, landscaped. You could get any level of food there. They have like fine dining and then they have like sort of burgers, like Nelson's is their sort of burger place. But that one's kind of out [music in] along the water. So it's kinda cool if you could get a spot on their patio. They have like these glass windows, but you're like right on the water, so it's really nice if you could get a seat there. But uh, this trail, it goes all the way through Terranea, all the way to the lighthouse if you kept walking.

Brian De Los Santos  10:00

The last stop on the walk is the Point Vicente Lighthouse, which has been there for almost 100 years, and it still runs. If you do the whole loop, it's about five miles. So you might want to wear some good shoes, just not those crocs. If you need to take a break, there's a little museum by the lighthouse, where you can learn more about the history of Palos Verdes. And one last pro tip: If you want to see a living whale and not just a skeleton, the best time to visit is December through April, when they migrate from Alaska down to Baja.

Lyn Watanabe  10:34

Sometimes there's so many in a pod, so you'll just see them like jumping on top of the water.

Brian De Los Santos  10:40

You don't even need to be a professional. You got museum docents to help you out.

Brian De Los Santos  10:44

[music changes] That's it for today, y'all. But I want to know: What is your favorite outdoor spot? Send us your recommendation or any hiking hacks you might have. Hit us up on Instagram at LAist pics.

Brian De Los Santos  11:01

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Brian De Los Santos  11:16

All right, see y'all tomorrow. [music out]