Ballots and Districts
Why your ballot isn’t the same as your friend’s two blocks away
Your ballot is effectively a map. Every race you see—city council, school board, county supervisor, state legislature, Congress—comes from the boundaries drawn around where you live. These maps are redrawn every ten years after the census, and sometimes mid-cycle when courts intervene. Each jurisdiction—city, county, state, federal—draws its own districts with different rules.
This is why neighbors on the same street can have different ballots. One might vote for a different school board member because the district boundary cuts between houses. Another might see a county supervisor race you don’t. District lines set who you can hold accountable, whose policies affect your neighborhood, and who competes for your vote.
Redistricting shifts power quietly. Without changing the population, the lines can strengthen or weaken representation, alter voting blocs, and change which communities carry influence.