The Nov. 8 general election is just weeks away and as many of you begin to receive your vote-by-mail ballots at home, we’ll be ramping up our election coverage, which you can find at lbpost.com/elections.
For now, though, what do you need to know?
Mayor and City Council races
While many races were settled in the June primary, some of the most consequential contests will be decided next month. Most notably, the mayor’s race has Councilmember Suzie Price and Councilmember Rex Richardson, who are vying to be the city’s next leader.
Three City Council seats are also on the ballot: the 3rd District representing Southeast Long Beach, the 9th District representing North Long Beach and the reconfigured 5th District, which includes communities on both sides of Long Beach Airport.
To see head-to-head comparisons of the mayoral and City Council candidates, check out our Compare Your Candidates interactive tool at cyc.old.lbpost.com.
Today, we also published debates conducted this week with the candidates for mayor and the 3rd, 5th and 9th districts.
Mayoral debate
3rd District City Council debate
5th District City Council debate
9th District City Council debate
Ballot measures
Californians will also have to decide on seven statewide ballot measures, and Long Beach voters will have four additional citywide measures to vote on.
Two of those measures would permanently realign the city and school district’s election schedule with the state, meaning runoff elections would occur in November every year with primary elections fluctuating between June and March, if it’s a presidential election cycle.
Another measure could merge the city’s water and gas departments into one public utility. The last, and likely the most controversial, would restructure the city’s Citizen’s Police Complaint Commission.
The commission has been described as “toothless” by residents and former commissioners who served on the body, which even its founders said never delivered the kind of accountability they sought when the CPCC was formed in 1990.
The proposed replacement has also been criticized for removing the commissioners’ role of looking over cases of alleged police misconduct and the body’s ability to conduct parallel investigations to the police department’s internal affairs process.
The city has published a list of vote centers that will be open in the days leading up to the election starting Oct. 29. But all registered voters will be sent a ballot in the mail that can be returned through the mail or at one of the 17 drop boxes located across the city starting Oct. 10.
How do I vote?
Just like in the last election, every registered voter in LA County is being mailed a ballot.
To make sure your registration is active and you’ll be mailed a ballot, you can visit the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s website. Once you’re signed up, you can track your ballot here.
If you prefer not to mail your ballot, the Registrar-Recorder will soon publish a list of drop-boxes across the county that any voter can use. In-person voting is also available at any of the vote centers across LA County.