Voter Registration Week: Local groups share importance of this year’s elections for Santa Maria
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Election Day is right around the corner.
So the City of Santa Maria wants to let the community know how to make sure your vote will count.
"If you have moved ... if you change your name ... or you wish to change your political party preference ... or your signature has changed and you want your vote to count ... you need to register to vote," said spokesperson Mark van de Kamp with the City of Santa Maria.
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is one of several groups also encouraging everyone to register to vote this week.
"Even at the local level there’s a lot of decisions to be made about leadership and upcoming leadership ... and those decisions can really affect the direction our community takes going forward ... and so I think we really just encourage everyone to be informed and see what the issues are on the upcoming ballots locally, state wide and nationally," said Molly Schiff with the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce.
While there will be in person-voting options, it will be more limited due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
"Everyone is going to get a ballot in the mail in California. Even if you weren’t registered to vote by mail before. And so we want to make sure that no one slips through the or doesn’t wanna vote. There were only be a few polling place is per city. And some of our small rural town through only be one polling place," said Policy Director Lucas Zucker with CAUSE.
As of this month the city has 36, 14 registered voters, and the city is hoping that number will go up.
"Ballots will be mailed out starting at October 5. And if you register to vote you can turn them in. The last day to register to vote is fifteen days before Election Day," said van de Kamp.
