The March 5 municipal elections brought out a diverse group of Angelenos to participate in choosing their prospective city leaders.
Working a polling place this year, I met people from a variety of backgrounds, who felt voting was instrumental to the well-being of their community.
Rory Johnson, a resident of Baldwin Hills, was born and raised in Los Angeles. For Johnson, voting stems from cultural reasons.
“I feel it is important to participate in elections. Participating in all elections is important—especially as a black person knowing what my ancestors went through to have the right to vote,” said Johnson.
Through volunteering at the election, I was able to reflect with many citizens after they cast their votes.
This was made possible through another important aspect of the election process: exit polling.
Exit poll surveys are often handed out after major elections to determine future voting trends, voting demographics and voter counts.
After the primary and runoff elections, exit polls are collected, processed and analyzed for future research by student volunteers working for The Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
My classmate Amie Gonzalez and I were able to serve as volunteers by working a 14-hour shift as exit poll-workers at the Consolidated Board of Realists on Don Felipe Drive in Baldwin Hills.
We and other students manned stations across the city of Los Angeles, watching the polls and asking citizens to participate in research.
As part of our duties, we counted hourly voting rates and observed the demographics of the people who exited the polls. Though Gonzalez and I both live outside the Los Angeles city borders, we were excited to participate in the exit polling of a community close to our hearts.
“I am a political science major and I hope to be more involved. I live right by Los Angeles, but I didn’t get to vote,” Gonzalez said. “The results of this election will indirectly affect me anyway, so I wanted to see how the whole dynamics of L.A. government works.”
Because of her exit poll work experience, Gonzalez states that she “hopes to become more involved in politics—not even at school, but after too.”
Exit polling helped connect me with groups of people I might not have met before. By learning about their stories and unique reasons for voting, I learned more about them as people.