Ballots mailed statewide as election season kicks off Monday

CENTRAL COAST REGION, Calif. – It is officially election season and registered voters should be receiving their official ballots for California's Mar. 5 Presidential Primary in the mail soon.

The 29-day countdown begins Monday as all county-specific Clerk-Recorder offices are mandated to mail ballots to voters by state election code.

All ballots can be dropped off at official ballot drop boxes, returned to the address detailed on your ballot, or mailed postage-free at any post office box.

According to the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder, voters should expect their ballots within ten days and voters that are overseas have already been sent their ballots that need to be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted.

You still have time to register for a mail-in ballot up to Feb. 20 explain the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder, but registration after that date must be done in person at one of the county Elections Offices or at their polling location on Election Day.

You can track your personal ballot by signing up at WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov as every single ballot has a unique bar-coded envelope.

Changes to voter registration information submitted after Jan. 5, 2024, are updated and sent to the ballot printer twice a week until Feb. 21 of this year. Those changes can trigger supplemental ballot mailings detail the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder.

So what do you do if you changed information on your voter registration or re-register and receive two ballots?

You don't get two votes. Submitting multiple votes is not just unethical, it is illegal.

All mail-in ballots have multiple layers of security despite some popular social media posts including: signature comparison, scanned barcodes unique to the ballot, and duplicate ballots are automatically voided, inspected, and passed along for investigation.

The San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder recommends people with duplicate ballots destroy their ballot with outdated information or bring it to an elections office and explain it is a duplicate ballot that you would like disposed of.

Have any questions?

For voters in San Luis Obispo County, you are directed to call the Elections Office at 805-781-5228 or email at elections@co.slo.ca.us or check out the Voter FAQ page at slovote.com/March2024 or visit one of the two official San Luis Obispo County Elections Offices.

• SLO Elections Office in the Katcho Achadjian Government Center at 1055 Monterey Street between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday
• Atascadero Elections Office at 6565 Capistrano Avenue on the second floor of the library between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday

Both of those San Luis Obispo County Elections Offices will be open until 8 p.m. on Election Day and the SLO Election Office will be open for early voting on Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For voters in Ventura County, anyone interested in voting in-person from now until Election Day can visit the Ventura County Registrar of Voters Office at 800 S. Victoria in Ventura.

A total of 38 ballot drop boxes will be ready to receive your vote by Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.

Ventura County is a California Voters Choice Act county which means starting Feb. 24, 2024, you will have more opportunities to get voter assistance at any of the 11 vote centers across the county and an additional 41 vote centers will open Mar. 2, 2024.

California has six official political parties explain the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder, and voters have the option to register for any one of those parties and vote for their preferred primary candidates at these vote centers.

For more information and help casting your vote, visit the Ventura County Registrar of Voters website, or call 805-654-2664, or email elections@ventura.org.