Early voting starts this week for the June 8 statewide primary election, and Oakland Local is here to help you make sense of your ballot.

Decisions made by local officials have an enormous impact on the quality of life of their constituents, and yet many voters simply skip over those races on the ballot. Getting to know your representatives and decisionmakers is a long process, so we've organized the core information in one place. With the help of the League of Women Voters of Oakland, we've put together a basic guide to Alameda County candidates.

For information on the propositions, see our guide to propositions 13 to 17 to learn how they might affect you, and who's behind them. OL will update this guide as more information becomes available.

Make sure you're registered to vote with Alameda County's online verification tool. And mark your calendar for May 24 -- the last day to register to vote in this election.

Here are the races you need to know about.

Alameda County Board of Supervisors (District 2)
Although Oakland is not part of District 2, Oakland residents are affected by actions taken by all county supervisors. Current supervisor Gail Steele is retiring.

Liz Figueroa
Occupation: Former state senator
Total Capitol
Official website
Facebook

Kevin Downling
Occupation: Hayward City Councilmember
Official website
Facebook

Mark Green
Occupation: Mayor of Union City
Official website
Facebook

Nadia Lockyer
Occupation: County Manager/Attorney
Official website
Facebook

Alameda County Board of Supervisors (District 3)
Oakland is in District 3. Current supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker will not to seek re-election.

Wilma Chan
Occupation: Assemblywoman; former Supervisor
LWV
Total Capitol
Official website
EBYD questionnaire

Bev Johnson
Occupation: Mayor of Alameda
Official website
Facebook
EBYD questionnaire

Lou Filipovich
Occupation: Businessman
LWV
Total Capitol

Harold Lowe
Occupation: Financial Planner
Official website
Facebook
EBYD questionnaire


Alameda County Board of Educations (Trustee Area 3)

Lois Corrin
Occupation: Educator
EBYD questionnaire

Joaquin J. Rivera
Occupation: Teacher; former Berkeley school board member
LWV
Official website
EBYD questionnaire

Notes

• LWV - The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan citizen education organization. When available, this is listed first due to lack of partisanship and endorsement.
• Total Capitol - Information about California politics and people. Listed before official websites due to lack of endorsement.
• EBYD - East Bay Young Democrats asked several Alameda County candidates to complete a questionnaire before they announced their endorsements. The questions concern health care, jobs, transportation, transparency and youth issues. The full list of questionnaires is available on its website. (If it's not listed here, it wasn't posted online.) No Republican equivalent to this initiative was found. EBYD has a full election guide here.