Vote-By-Mail Ballots To Arrive This Week for Registered Voters
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Across the state of California, vote-by-mail ballots are now in the mail heading to registered voters who can immediately cast their ballots for the November 3rd election.
In the tri-counties, the ballots are in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service for delivery this week.
For Santa Barbara County, in the June Primary Election, approximately 250,000 ballots were sent out.
Martin Cobos is the Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters at County of Santa Barbara. He said, "if you haven't gotten your ballot by next Tuesday the 13th please give us a call or go to our website and we would be happy to replace that ballot for you. "
Voters will be deciding on statewide candidates and propositions including the Governor's seat.
Closer to home there will be many different choices depending on where you live.
For example, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Buellton, Guadalupe and Lompoc have a mayoral race but Santa Maria, Goleta and Carpinteria do not.
There are also many district elections for positions including fire commissions and sanitary boards.
"We have multiple races on here you'll notice a lot of judicial contests, you will notice state propositions, state measures. Those are on these two cards and they take up space in addition to your local races, " said Cobos.
This year, vote-by-mail ballots will have two cards due to the number of elections andThere are 18 drop boxes for ballots countywide and they will be checked daily by the elections department. You can also drop them off at the election office in Santa Barbara and Santa Maria, you can mail them at the U.S. post office (preferably a week before the deadline) or hand them to an election worker at a polling place on election day.
The voter guides for this election have already gone out. They are filled with information about the issues and candidates. "It tells you where your drop boxes are located. It tells you candidate statements if they chosen to place one on here and it has a sample ballot so you can mark it before you mark your real ballot," said Cobos.
All of the ballots need to be returned in the provided envelope that is sealed and signed on the back.
A special machine will scan the signature to make sure it matches what the voter used when they registered, or the one on their driver's license and it has other ways to check. If there is an issue an elections worker will handle it personally and at times contact the voter for verification.
Every ballot has a bar code so the system can track it, and voters can sign up for a similar tracking service.
Anyone can get a replacement ballot if they have lost their materials, or soiled them.
The vote by mail materials include the popular "I Vote" sticker.
If you need information about voter registration, your ballot or election materials go to SBCvote.com
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