Ballots and other election materials arrive ahead of the Nov. 8th election for thousands of registered voters
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The mailboxes of registered voters are getting filled with election materials, including the vote-by-mail ballots.
Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters Joe Holland says about 237,000 ballots went to registered voters on Friday with some arriving Saturday.
"Some might get them on Tuesday, but that is the ballot and you are welcome to vote immediately – you don't even need to put a stamp on it. Just put it in the mail," said Holland.
"There are many options on how to cast your ballot. First, you are going to get it in the mail. You can drop it in a drop box, you can drop it in a (USPS) blue box, you can drop it in your own personal mailbox and the post office will deliver it. Additionally, you can wait until election day and surrender it at a polling place and vote a live ballot."
The ballot has something for everyone.
"The ballot is kind of unique in that depending on where you live, you might have a city council race, a mayor's race, in addition to some of the statewide offices," said Holland.
There are also contests for State Assembly and U.S. Congress. Some cities have specific issues for their area. Goleta has a sale tax decision for voters, and Carpinteria has a land use issue at a site for a proposed development.
Holland also said you don't need to vote in every contest. "People should not be intimidated, they should vote what they are interested in and what they are knowledgeable (about) and cast that ballot."
Registered voter Katie Jacobs said, she will be voting later this month. "I put it off until the weekend before then I read everything and then I always look up my League of Women's voters (information)."
The elections office says it will immediately collect the first ballots in and begin verifying signatures. Those ballots are allowed to be run through the election systems and the results will be stored, not released early.
The first sign of results will come on November 8 after the polls close at 8 p.m.
Voters who enjoy the vote-by-mail process say it gives them time to cast their ballot on their own schedule rather than on election day only.
Iratxe Mumford said, "it's nice to get it out of the way but I also want to make sure I don't rush anything.  I have the time to do a little bit more of the research."
For resources, "online there's plenty of resources. There is the Secretary of State, or you can go to our website sbcvote.com. Also, we mailed you a voter information guide and that has voter information there, as well as the state mailed you a guide," he said.
The Elections Office has been beefing up its staff for this election.
"We hired extra help folks and we trained them on how to answer any questions people might have so they are ready and standing by to answer any question you have right now," said Holland.
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