This June, California voters will cast their ballot for governor, secretary of state and attorney general, among others, but Central Coast residents will notice some new faces this primary election when it comes to deciding the best candidates to represent them.
Every 10 years after the census count, new district lines are drawn.
The upcoming primary election marks the first opportunity to vote for candidates in the newly drawn districts.
To figure out which districts you're in, San Luis Obispo County voters can head to the voter status lookup page.
“It'll ask for the birthdate, last four digits of the driver’s license and just the street address number.
It's going to pop up all of their information regarding to which districts will be on their ballot,” said Elaina Cano, San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder.
In Santa Barbara County, voters can find information by clicking here.
The 24th Congressional District will still encompass all of Santa Barbara County with incumbent Salud Carbajal.
It'll gain a bit more of western Ventura County that's more liberal and lose the more conservative northern portion of San Luis Obispo County to District 19, which will now extend north along the Monterey and Santa Cruz coastlines.
“I think it is a fair question whether any representative can adequately represent half a million people.
The average size congressional district is 700,000,” said Michael Latner, a Cal Poly political science professor.
The representatives of State Assembly Districts 30 and 37 will also be in the hands of Central Coast voters this spring.
One of the bigger changes is that District 35, represented by Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham and mostly covering San Luis Obispo County, is now absorbed into the 30th Assembly District, stretching up the coast into Monterey.
“California has very large districts across the state because there are only 80 seats in the assembly
and there are 40 million Californians. We actually have some of the largest electoral districts in the world,” Latner said.
All of Santa Barbara County is in the 37th District, along with the southern portion of San Luis Obispo County.
Portions of Ventura County are now chopped out of the district, leaving Santa Barbara County without an incumbent.
“The redistricting process was not very friendly to incumbents, so we actually had a large number incumbents throughout the state who were put into districts where they weren't going to be very competitive and so they chose not to run again,” Latner said.
The existing district boundaries will remain in effect until the newly-elected official take office after the November general election.
