Casting a write-in vote in San Diego County elections is a straightforward process that requires a few steps. To begin, you must first request a vote-by-mail ballot from your county election official. This can be done by completing the vote-by-mail ballot request included on your sample ballot, downloading and completing an online vote-by-mail application, or by calling your county elections office. If you are voting by mail for the first time, you must provide a photocopy of your identification with your request.
Acceptable forms of identification include a recent utility bill, the county election information guide you received from your county elections office, or any other document from a government agency such as your passport, driver's license, or student ID. Once your county election official processes your request, your ballot will be sent to you. After you have voted, insert your ballot into the envelope provided and make sure to complete all of the information required on the envelope. You can return your vote-by-mail ballot by mailing it to your county elections official, returning it in person to a voting center or to your county elections office on election day, or authorizing someone to return the ballot on your behalf.
You can track the status of your vote-by-mail ballot by visiting the My Voter Status and Where's My Ballot websites. If you want to request a vote-by-mail ballot seven days before the election, you'll need to apply in person at your county elections office. Your county elections office may also allow you to submit requests over the phone; just call to see if this is an option. During signature verification, the ballot return envelope is compared to the state's voter database to ensure that the voter has not voted anywhere else.
All valid vote-by-mail ballots are counted in every California election, regardless of the outcome or the fight of any contest. Official results are never available on election day as election officials work around the clock to count an unprecedented number of ballots and ensure that every vote is counted. Mail-in ballots that arrive late and provisional ballots will be counted over the following days and weeks. The official election results will be posted on the California Secretary of State website as they become available.
California is one of the “two main primary states” where all candidates appear on the same ballot and all candidates are listed with their party affiliation. The two main candidates that get the most votes in each race, regardless of their party, will go to the general elections. If you have any questions about your state's primary elections, contact your local election officials. Provisional ballots are counted no later than the Thursday after the election until it is completed.
For more information on provisional voting and information on how to track your provisional ballot, visit your Secretary of State's website. There are many ways that voters with disabilities can vote including curbside voting which allows you to park as close to the voting area as possible. Election officials will bring you all the voting material you need to vote either on the sidewalk or in your car. Be sure to check if curbside voting is available at your voting center or voting center by contacting your county elections office.
Contact your county elections office for details on accessible voting machines in your area and for more information use the resource of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). Public and private employers must give employees time off to vote unless they have two hours of non-work time available or do not vote at all. Employers may require employees to notify in advance that they will need additional time off to vote and may require that time off be taken at the beginning or end of their shift. The voting machine systems used in California are optical scanning and DRE (Direct Recording Electronic).
Some of these devices will show all candidates and ballot options on a large screen where you press a button next to the name of the candidate you want to vote for (or yes or no on a bill). Other DRE have small screens configured to show pages where you can vote for one thing per page such as president on one page and senator on another page. Often these small screen devices have a touchscreen where you tap next to the name of who you want to vote for or have a keyboard where you type in their name. You let the system know that you have finished voting by pressing a button, touching the screen or entering something on the keyboard.
VOTE411 is committed to ensuring that voters have all of the information they need to successfully participate in every election whether local, state or federal. For more information visit your Secretary of State's website and Open Secrets for federal campaign contributions and Voter's Edge for information on candidates and local, state and federal bills.
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