Oakland.Vote 2021 Ballot Tidbits
How do I vote in the June 2021 special election? Check if you are in AD18 and part of the special election Who's running?Special Election on June 29
Oakland! Some of us have a very important special election happening on June 29 (as always, if you ask early you can vote by mail). Given the short turnaround coinciding with municipal budget shenanigans, we aren’t publishing a full voter guide - but we do have some tidbits for you, the voter who wishes to be informed!
What should I know about the June 29 election?
We will be voting for a California Assemblymember! (This is the state-level equivalent to the House of Representatives.) California legislature gets a lot done on issues around police accountability, housing, green energy, and much more. They even can change how fast AC Transit buses go over the bay bridge. This is a pretty frickin important election!
Our assembly district is 18 (commonly referred to as “AD18”), and covers Alameda, San Leandro, and much of Oakland. You can check if you are in AD18 and should expect to vote in this special election. The short version: North Oakland is AD15, everyone else is in AD18.
OK this is important but WHY are we voting in another election on June 29 2021??
Ever since President Biden’s election, California has been playing a delightful game of musical chairs. Besides replacing our junior Senator with a new junior Senator:
- Our previous Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, joined President Biden’s cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Governor Newsom appointed former-AD18 Assemblymember Rob Bonta to be the new Attorney General
- Replacing Assemblymembers isn’t done by appointment, but by special election
Why Rob Bonta? State legislators are capped at 12 continuous years in office, at which point they are ineligible to re-run without taking a break first. Rob Bonta was in this termed-out situation, and was at an up-or-out point in his political career. Whoever wins this election will likely remain in office as the difficult-to-unseat incumbent for the next 12 years before being termed-out themselves.
The Oakland.Vote 2021 Ballot Tidbits
What this “Tidbits” is
There are currently no accessible voting guides with hyper-local candidate and ballot measure analyses in Oakland, so we wanted to make one for you. Given the short turnaround coinciding with municipal budget shenanigans, we aren’t publishing a full voter guide - but we do have some tidbits for you, the voter who wishes to be informed! We give you facts we think may be relevant to your decision making that you can verify, you make your own choices, and vote on (or before!) June 29, 2021.
Who we are
We are your friends and neighbors across Oakland. For more information about us, check out our About page.
