Tuesday's Primary: What to Know Before You Vote

Los Angeles County voters will go to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in local, state and national political races, as well as on two statewide ballot initiatives and several local initiatives.

The county's 4.5 million registered voters will have the chance to approve two state ballot measures— to fund cancer research and another to reduce the amount of time politicians can serve in the
state Legislature from 14 years to 12 years.   

But without a high-stakes presidential primary—Republican Mitt Romney has already earned the delegates he needs to claim the GOP nomination—voter turnout is expected to be low.

Six candidates are vying to become Los Angeles County's top prosecutor. Voters across the county will also weigh in on a total of 18 U.S. House, seven
state Senate, 24 state Assembly and three Los Angeles County supervisorial
races.

The election will mark the first major test of the state's "top two" primary system approved by California voters in 2010. Under the system, only the top two vote-getters, regardless of political party, will advance to a Nov. 6 runoff. The system does not apply to local, presidential or central committee races.

The system was intended to produce more moderate candidates, said Fernando Guerra, a Loyola Marymount politics professor and director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles.

The intention, however, is likely to be counteracted by low voter turnout.

"Voters that are motivated by ideology are still going to dominate this election," Guerra said.

Guerra said the "top two" runoff system is also likely to devastate third parties.

"I predict there will not be a single third-party candidate on the (runoff) ballot in November for the first time in decades, in almost 50 years," Guerra said.

In some cases that could leave as much as 10 percent of the electorate up for grabs during a runoff election.

Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC, said it could force candidates to communicate more with voters.

"It's not just a quantity of voter communication. It's the nature of that communication as well," Schnur said. "Candidates will find that they can no longer rely solely on the most ideologically intense members of their own party. They will be forced to reach out to a broader range of voters."

The results of the also affected the makeup of candidates on Tuesday's ballot putting South Pasadena's previous local representatives in new districts.

Races for the new districts representing South Pas include: State Senator 25th District, U.S. Representative 27th District and State Assembly 41st District.

Get to know whose running before you vote:

25th Senate District: 

•  
• Carol Liu's bio.
  

27th Congressional District: 

• 
  
• 6 Questions for Congressional Candidate Bob Duran 
• Judy Chu's bio.  
• 
  

41st Assembly District:

Also:

• Find Your Polling Place Here

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m Tuesday.