You would think the Annenberg Media politics editor would be an expert on the upcoming midterm elections. Turns out, I recently realized all my work in politics had been at best, misguided and at worst, just plain wrong.
The summer of 2018 served as the catalyst for my manic, borderline psychotic obsession with politics. Although I could not be involved in politics in D.C., I got involved back home, volunteering to work the polls during the primary election and agreed to reach out to some of the various congressional candidates around my home. The congressional races in Orange County are some of the most hotly contested races in the country, and I wanted to be involved in any way I could.
I interned for Mike Levin, a congressional candidate in an election that the LA Times had called "the most competitive race in California". Levin, is an environmental attorney who is running for Congress in the 49th District. The 49th comprises most of southern Orange County, where I live, and down the coast to northern San Diego and Oceanside. I hit all the normal campaign tropes; phonebanking, voter registration and assisting at lots and lots of events house parties and rallies. The summer passed, and I dove back into USC life, focusing on my classes and looking for different ways to get involved on campus.
- Mike Levin (left) and me (right), encircled in red. Tweeted by @MikeLevinCA
When I hired as an Annenberg Media editor, I said my mission would be voter awareness. USC is notoriously unengaged with politics. In election's past, voter registration has been a poor showing from USC students. According to the Los Angeles County Registrar, UCLA outnumbered voter registration with a total of 10,109 students to USC's 411 students. My goal was to increase the numbers of voters on campus as well as increase the knowledge of the student body, a more informed student is a more informed voter.
Now, with the election less than two weeks away, chaos abounds, and the Media Center is at battle stations 24/7 in anticipation for our election night broadcast, and classes have hit peak stress-causation. Then finally, like a ray of sunshine in the dark, my vote-by-mail ballot arrived in my mailbox. When I sat down to vote and take advantage of the greatest right I have as a citizen of this country, I started by scrolling through the easy votes that I had already researched, the propositions, the gubernatorial race and the U.S. Senate race. I went to bubble in Mike Levin's name to commemorate my work through the entire summer. But, when I reached the 10th question on the ballot, his name was not there. There must have been a mistake I thought,
They sent me the wrong ballot, they must have!
I'm just looking in the wrong place, I thought as I furiously flipped through the pages of my ballot.
Then it dawned on me, Maybe…maybe, I'm not in the 49th District.
Trying my damndest to push this foolish thought from my mind, and slightly-hyperventilating, I logged on to the House of Representatives website to plug in my address and prove to the government that they had screwed up and sent me the wrong ballot. I clicked search, and a number popped up. A number very similar to the one I was hoping for, but off by one digit. I zoomed in on the map next to the blood-chilling text.
The House of Representatives site displays a map with a dot placed to mark the users address.
Information provided:
Street: My Street
City: My City
Zip Code: My Zip Code
is located in the 48th Congressional district of California.
- My house, in the 48th district, shaded in brown.
(Photo Source: house.gov)
I was 200 feet away from the 49th district, the distance from Tommy Trojan to the front of Doheny Library. Close, but still very much in the 48th district. I struggled with this revelation for about an hour. My inner monologue went something like this,
How could I! The Politics Editor of Annenberg Media! How could I have been so misguided and misinformed as to not even know who my representative was.
I got over my delusions of grandeur and melodrama in about an hour and laughed it off. I still get to vote, and the 48th District is still a crucial race in California, my vote is just not going to who I initially thought it was for.
My point in telling this tale: be informed, do your research. If even someone like me, who is obsessed with politics in a way I hope normal people are not, can be wrong, it would be easy for anyone to get bogged down and confused. Have a good Election Day and stay up-to-date on the results and what it all means with Annenberg Media’s coverage.