LA County kicks election prep into high gear with 1 month to go — what voters need to know

Check your mailboxes Los Angeles voters, election season is officially kicking into high gear.

Los Angeles County has begun mailing ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, launching the final month of a packed election featuring contests for LA mayor, California governor and Congress, along with a sprawling collection of local and statewide measures.

The county is offering more than 400 ballot drop boxes, while vote centers begin opening Oct. 24. Voters who haven’t registered and want a ballot mailed to them have until Oct. 19.

The ballots are landing as California remains at the center of a heated fight over election security.
Critics, including First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, have raised concerns about the state’s vote-by-mail system, ballot handling and the ability to verify that ballots are being cast by eligible voters, while state officials and voting advocates have defended the Golden State’s safeguards.

The debate is likely to intensify as millions of ballots go out ahead of next month’s election, putting renewed focus on how the state verifies, processes and counts the votes once they’re returned.

Among the headline contests is the Los Angeles mayoral race, where incumbent Mayor Karen Bass faces City Council member Nithya Raman. That contentious matchup between the two Democrats involves candidates with dramatically different political coalitions. 

But the mayor’s office is far from the only consequential choice facing Angelenos. City voters will also confront eight local ballot measures, ranging from taxes and wildfire recovery to sweeping changes in how City Hall operates. 

Here are five measures involving significant fiscal, governmental or land-use changes:

Measure FD — A new tax for LA firefighters

The citizen-sponsored measure would slap a new 0.5% sales tax on purchases in Los Angeles to pump approximately $345 million annually into the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The money could pay for firefighters and paramedics, fire trucks, ambulances, helicopters, fire stations, emergency communications, brush clearance and wildfire preparedness. It would also establish a Citizens’ Oversight Committee and require audits. 

Proposition TE — A Palisades Fire tax break

Voters will decide whether some victims of the devastating January 2025 Palisades Fire should receive an exemption from Proposition ULA (commonly known as the “mansion tax“), the city’s transfer tax on high-dollar real estate deals.

The exemption would apply to qualifying residential properties damaged or destroyed by the fire and sold by the qualifying owner within five years of the blaze. 

City analysts estimate the exemption could reduce ULA revenue used for affordable housing and homelessness-prevention programs by $35 million to $66 million through January 2030. 

Charter Amendment LA — City Hall shake-up

This proposal could overhaul the machinery of the LA government, including moving the city toward a two-year budget cycle and requiring a capital infrastructure plan.

It would also give the Director of Public Works greater authority, allow changes to or elimination of the Board of Public Works, loosen restrictions on city business enterprises and mortgaging city-owned property, and change contracting procedures. 

Charter Amendment PL — Planning overhaul

The measure would scrap LA’s seven Area Planning Commissions and replace them with a single Neighborhood Appeals Commission.

It would also change how some land-use decisions and appeals are handled and allow the City Council to alter floor-area restrictions by ordinance. 

Charter Amendment EE — Ethics and elections revamp

The wide-ranging proposal would increase maximum penalties for campaign-finance violations, strengthen the independence of the LAPD Inspector General and Fire Department Independent Assessor and impose a five-year restriction on certain Ethics Commission officials seeking city or LAUSD office after leaving their posts.

It would also increase the signatures required for referendum petitions from 10% to 15% of the votes cast in the previous mayoral election and change the City Council’s minimum meeting requirement from three days per week to at least weekly. 

And those are only part of the ballot.

City voters will also weigh measures concerning parks funding, LA’s airport, harbor and water-and-power departments and LAUSD campaign-finance rules, giving Angelenos plenty of homework before Election Day.