Opinion: UCLA students need to be more involved in local politics

Although the UCLA student body is positioned to be incredibly influential in local politics, this emerging voting bloc is often undermined.

Many critical issues are handled on the local level, yet many Bruins choose not to vote or remain registered to vote elsewhere while living and attending school in Los Angeles. However, it is crucial to be involved in the process of choosing a particular candidate to represent the district you live in.

UCLA political science lecturer Chris Baylor said many highly visible issues are under local jurisdiction. He added that schools in America are primarily regulated locally, and homelessness is another issue that is largely the responsibility of local governments.

“It’s (LA) built a tiny fraction of the housing it promised, and it’s built it at a cost of $600,000 to $800,000 per unit – and you’re talking about a unit the size of a walk-in closet,” Baylor said. “I don’t see how you fix that without getting people more involved in local politics.”

In a city where just 21 people across the city council, county board of supervisors and mayor’s office govern millions, it becomes evident just how influential one elected official can be.

In a New York city council district, every council member represents roughly 177,000 people, while Katy Young Yaroslavsky – the Councilmember for the LA district that covers Westwood and UCLA – represents about 260,000.

LA politics are more dependent on the formation of voting blocs than possibly any other city in the country, meaning the city would significantly benefit from the participation of the tens of thousands of eligible voters at UCLA.

In 2022, Yaroslavsky’s victory was decided by just 16,000 votes. The 2017 race for the board member from LA Unified School District 4, which covers Westwood and UCLA, was decided by fewer than 10,000 votes.

Even at the city level, the margins for victory and defeat are not as large as one might expect given the size of the local population. The race for LA city attorney saw Hydee Feldstein Soto claim victory by a margin of approximately 85,000 votes, while Mayor Karen Bass defeated Rick Caruso by just short of 90,000 votes.

The votes held by UCLA undergraduates could have huge sway in citywide elections and would be a decisive factor in district-level races for council seats and school board positions.

Of course, UCLA students aren’t a unanimous bloc and evidently will not agree on every issue, platform or candidate. But regardless of which way Bruins vote on a ballot item, it stands that too few students are involved in local politics.

A Niche poll of 183 students conducted at UCLA estimated that 24% “don’t care about politics.” This percentage of students, roughly 1 in 4, is less likely to participate politically and as a result less likely to register to vote or participate in local elections.

All of a sudden, this massive voting bloc, prepared to wield a swift hand of justice over LA’s Council District 5 and LA Unified School District 4 – and the rest of the city – is dramatically reduced.

“College students turn out to vote at notoriously low rates,” Baylor said. “In a local election, where there isn’t a presidential election, the turnout is very low. … They pay less attention than ever now, with more attention than ever on the president and Congress.”

First-year human biology and society student Laura Wise said she sees the value of local elections, which may not have a national impact but instead have a much more direct and immediate effect on one’s community.

“Locally, it’s going to impact your life more, in a way, and the lives of those around you. So I think it’s more relevant,” Wise said.

But Wise added that she remains more drawn to politics on the national level than to local politics.

However, national issues are increasingly tied to local politics, Baylor said, and young voters can be pushed to participate locally by getting them to think in terms of a bigger mission. He added that this can be achieved through demonstrating they are participating locally but as part of a much larger strategy to change things on the national level.

Activists and political organizers must capitalize on the large portion of the student population who are not registered to vote in LA or at all. Doing so would give Bruins a tremendous amount of power over the issues that matter most to us on the local level.

“This local government is the stuff that really touches people’s lives – sometimes the most concretely, directly – when it comes to even sidewalks and speed bumps,” said Andrew DeBlock, senior adviser to Councilmember Yaroslavsky.

LA is undoubtedly in a moment of suspense, torn between the systemic problems and corruption of the past and a vision of the future centered around equity and justice.

That future is driven by tangible change that must come to define the next decade, and young voters remain the only way to solidify that change.