Voters in the Making

Our American Society class at Anacapa School has been studying the recent City Council elections. We decided to read The Santa Barbara Independent, and we noticed an inaccuracy in your reporting on how district elections were last held 60 years ago. However, it was 47 years ago, in 1968, that they changed to at-large elections, according to the Santa Barbara City Clerk’s office.

Our class would like to thank the Santa Barbara City Clerk’s office for giving us a tour and showing how the election process works, including how the ballots are processed in their office. We also thank all the candidates who came into our class to tell us why they were running: District 1’s Andria Martinez Cohen, Cruzito Herrera Cruz, and Jason Dominquez; District 2’s K. Missy McSweeney-Zeitsoff and Randy Rowse; and District 3’s Sharon Byrne, Cristina Cardoso, and Cathy Murillo. We learned so much from them about the issues impacting our city government.