HTLA: Haven’t Voted Yet? These Young Angelenos Think You Should!

Episode 31

Clara Castronovo  00:00

I think a lot of times there's a narrative that young people don't vote [laughs] at all or at high rates, but [music in] we are a very large group so, if we all turn out to vote, we can make a really big impact.

Brian De Los Santos  00:12

You hear that LA? Everyone can have an impact, so if you can vote, vote. From LAist Studios, this is How to LA, the podcast that helps you better connect with this city. I'm Brian De Los Santos. So some of you may still be celebrating LAFC's big win. The Los Angeles Football Club is the MLS champ. Woo! But now we got to turn to something else that's exciting. Election Day. You've been getting the mailers and the texts and the emails for weeks. We've been reminding you. If you have [music out] not voted yet, now is the time to do so. Fill out your ballot, mail it in or drop it off at a voting center near you, or just go do it in real time, today. You have until 8pm. If you still have questions, we've probably got the answers. Go to LAist.com/vote to access our voter guide. Now, if you have any doubt about why you should go exercise this right to vote, keep listening. [music in] [takes a breath] We need to take a second here to remind you about voting rights history. It has an ugly past. Many black activists and their allies were harassed and even murdered in their fight for voting rights, especially in the South. It's another example of white supremacy. I saw this tweet from a history professor at Princeton. His name is Kevin Kruse. It was talking about the historical fight for voting rights in this country and some of what was sacrificed, and it really hit me in the gut. I can't vote. And for me, it is important to see people around me vote. It is important for my loved ones to vote. It is my job to encourage them to exercise this right, right? So this episode, we're gonna hear from three young Angelenos about why they're voting and how they're getting their peers involved. If any of y'all are on the fence because it's raining, or whatever, we hope their words can fire you up. First up, we're gonna hear from Clara Castronovo. [music out] She's involved in a student campaign at UCLA that's all about registering students to vote.

Clara Castronovo  02:14

I, I think a lot of times, there's a narrative that young people don't vote [laughs] at all or at high rates. [music in] Um, so I think a lot of times elected officials don't really focus on catering towards our perspective, but we are a very large group so, if we all turn out to vote, we can make a really big impact. My name's Clara Castronovo, um, and I'm the chapter chair of CALPIRG students at UCLA. And we're running a campaign called the New Voters Project that works to register students to vote and make sure that they vote this November. So it's mostly about getting those resources out. I'm 20- So the first time I voted was in the presidential election of 2020. For me, the importance of voting was really clear. The 2016 election had happened like my first year of high school, and that brought a lot of people who had previously not paid attention to politics, um, into paying attention. [laughs] So a lot of people were talking about it. That was also uh, like a pretty shocking election result for like most of the country. And that really made me understand that like this is important, and it matters. And also having close elections makes it really obvious that each vote actually matters. I wanted to get involved with CALPIRG and the New Voters Project because oftentimes, when you're young, it feels like you can't do anything, or you can't participate in where decisions are made. And being involved in this advocacy group made me feel like I had power over the things that happened around me. So I wanted to join to be able to make a difference in my community and beyond.

Brian De Los Santos  03:58

Thanks to Clara for sharing that with us. She noted that one of the biggest issues for student voters is that they may be registered at a different address [music out] from where they're living, like their parents' house. Your mail in ballot goes wherever you're registered. So if you don't have your ballot yet, you just gotta go in person. But for next time, you can always request a new ballot up until a week before Election Day. Okay, up next, we'll hear from Irene [music in] Rivera. She works at the ACLU with the Youth Liberty Squad helping high school students get informed and engaged. The program isn't just about getting kids ready to vote. It's about creating the next generation of community leaders.

Irene Rivera  04:36

Young voters care about the same issues that any other voter would care about. A lot of the major political movements that we've seen, young people are at the forefront of it. They're the ones really leading these actions, sharing what is happening in their communities, in their schools, in their families, even though they can't vote until they're 18. This is the next generation; this is the future, right? Whatever we vote on and decide right now is gonna have an impact on them and their future. My name is Irene Rivera. I'm a senior policy advocate and organizer with the ACLU of Southern California. The Youth Liberty Squad, YLS for short, falls under the ACLU SoCal [music out] Education Equity Project. We work alongside high school students from across LA County and a few sprinkled from the Inland Empire to get insights about issues that they see in their schools and in their communities, learn about things that they care about, and then incorporate it into our work to make sure that, you know, we're working alongside them to make those changes on their campuses or school districts or on a statewide level. They're with us for an entire year. We have monthly meetings at our office, and we just dive deep, talk about what's happening in their schools, work on their public speaking, build their leadership skills, like you name it, we've probably done it at some point. They truly [music in] are amazing leaders, and they accomplish so much. It's just beautiful to see how much they grow in a couple of years. One specific student, Zaid- he's currently at USC. When he first started, he was already pretty active in his community. I think he was part of his city's youth council, wanting to learn more about politics. Now he's part of the Youth Development Department in the city of LA, which is huge. So he gets to bring in his perspective as a young person about problems that he sees in his community, and getting his peers, his community members to see why it's important to vote in general and interact with other youth in the city about these issues. He even created like his own ballot guide. It was so thorough. He's included the judges, the ones for community college districts. Seeing him put something like that together- and it's actually the second time that he does that- the thought that went into it, the research, it, it just brought a huge smile to my face, because a lot of the things that he was doing were things that we talked about when he was part of the Youth Liberty Squad. What I hope to pass along to young people is, you know, you want to be civically engaged, because it's so much more than just Oh, you know, pick the next President. For example, I come from an entirely immigrant family. I'm the youngest. I have two older sisters, [music out] and you know, my- Basically, my entire family was born in Mexico. I really am the only person who can vote in my family to this day. So as a voter, I feel like it's my role and duty to kind of be that voice for those that might not be able to vote in these elections. I know it can be difficult for young people. It can be intimidating, even for me, like I saw my ballot and there was a whole bunch of people, and I was like, I have no idea who half of these people are; I need to do my research and learn. And so just encouraging them to really, you know, talk about it with their friends. It might not be like the sexiest thing to talk about. It's like, hey, let's talk about this ballot initiative during our lunchtime. But again, it's just trying to connect it to their own experiences. Right now, [music in] there's conversations about abortion and contraception access, accountability for the share of rent control. These are all topics that very likely a lot of young people are impacted by. And I think us, as older adults, should make space for young people to talk about it and ask questions and not make them feel silly for asking what some might consider like not simple questions of like, Oh, how do you not know that, because they're learning, they're growing, and this is the time for them to really just engage themselves in these processes.

Brian De Los Santos  08:56

Thanks to Irene for sharing those stories. And finally, we're gonna hear from Catherine Estrada, a political science student at UCLA. She was involved [music out] with the Youth Literary Squad in high school and told us reasons why she votes despite sometimes feeling jaded.

Catherine Estrada  09:12

[music in] What I saw when I was helping younger uh, voters register was that the main question was, What is my vote actually gonna do? My name is Catherine Estrada. I am a second year political science student at UCLA. I grew up in South Central and I, I went to school in Culver City, so I never really experienced what school was like in my own communities. Once I was around like fourth or fifth grade, I think I moved back to a more local school to my house. And I noticed that there was just less opportunities for education or arts or even access to like, mental health professionals. It's never gonna set good in your bones knowing that you can't have the same opportunities. So with that being said, I think that voting can influence the way that allocation of funds go. You know, maybe if we divest in the police, w-, w- what can that mean for someone like me who doesn't have access to accounts, or in high school? Or who wants alternative methods for discipline? If I could, if I had the opportunity to choose where the funding was going, or who was the representative for education in my area, I can press this issue to them if they cared. It's hard to argue that voting is as important as it is because it's not something that is like an instant gratification. So yeah, that jaded um, perspective is something that I did encounter a lot, because it's like, you know, I would actually hear people say, Oh, like really? Voting, like is it really gonna do, make that much of an impact? And realistically, it is. There's two options in front of you. You either take the route that makes it better, or you just leave it as is. And if you ask me, I'd rather try to at least, you know, submit a little ballot that says, you know what, I want the world to be a little bit better, with a bunch of my friends, and say, you know, at least we tried. At least I did something to make the issues that I see in my community less prevalent. If we can't fix it today, it's probably gonna get fixed tomorrow. Or maybe the next day if we just keep trying.

Brian De Los Santos  11:14

That's refreshing to hear. [music out] You know, it's easy to get jaded. We get that, but you lose nothing by at least trying to make the change happen that you want to see. Thanks to [music in] Catherine, Irene, and Clara for sharing their stories and perspectives on the importance of voting. Check out our voters’ guide, LAist.com/vote. Tell your friends to do the same. Okay, now we're out. Next up, we'll be talking about the future of LA and how this incoming group of leaders should tackle the issues most important to us in this city. Until then, see you later.

Brian De Los Santos  11:53

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes LA 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. [music out]