Voting In CA: 2020 Ballot Arrival Schedule

CALIFORNIA — Despite a continued political storm surrounding the U.S. Postal Service, California is mailing every registered voter a ballot for the Nov. 3 election. All ballots will be mailed out by the Oct. 5 deadline, or perhaps sooner, depending on the county, officials said Monday.

According to a spokesperson at the California Secretary of State, it is up to individual counties, who are responsible for delivering ballots to voters, whether they want to disperse ballots before Oct. 5.

Registered voters can also track their mail in ballots this year, according to the California Secretary of State's office. For the first time, voters in the state will be able to track when their ballot is mailed, received and counted.

Interested voters can sign up here to receive email, text or voice call notifications about the status of ballots.

Back in March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to mail all active and registered voters their ballots for the November election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This controversial and significant move was implemented to avoid exposing to voters to other people in the to the long lines Californians experienced last year.

And the Golden State has been moving toward favoring mail-in election for some years now. According to LAist, 72 percent of voters used a mail-in ballot in the March primaries.

Although President Donald Trump falsely tweeted that any and all citizens living in California would receive a ballot, only actively registered voters in California are expected to receive a ballot through the mail.

As far as "active" voters go, each county has different standards for who is deemed "inactive."

For example, in Los Angeles, voters who do not respond to a letter to confirm their address and choose not to vote for two federal elections after the notice, will have their records canceled, LAist reported. However, inactive voters can register again through Conditional Voter Registration.

In Orange County, voters are counted inactive if they did not vote in the 2016 and 2018 elections. In San Francisco County, the deadline to make changes to a registration record is 15 days before an election. A registration update form can be found here.

Although registrars around the state are gearing up for a huge influx of mail in ballots compared to previous years, in person voting centers will still be open to those who prefer them.
In Los Angeles, Californians will be able to go to the Staples Center to vote, the LA County Registrar announced Saturday.

“Partnering with the Los Angeles Lakers, AEG, and STAPLES Center to act as a Vote Center in the upcoming Presidential General Election speaks to the commitment and spirit of enfranchising Los Angeles County voters," the registrar tweeted Saturday.

Here's how to vote by mail for the upcoming November election:

Registered voters should receive a ballot in the mail within 7-10 days after Oct. 5. If not, contact your county's registrar. Once your mailed-in ballot is completed, it can be inserted into the provided envelope and sent to your local county elections office.

You can also return your ballot by:

• Bringing it in-person to any nearby polling place or elections office before 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 3.
• Dropping it into one of your county's ballot drop boxes before 8 p.m. on Election Day.

If you're not registered to vote, you can register online here, up until Oct. 19. California also offers same-day registration, which can be done on Election Day at your local polling place.

If you need to change your address to vote by mail, you can:

• Write to your local county elections official
• Fill out this online application, print, sign, and date it, and then mail it to your county elections office. (Also available in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese)
• Or, fill out the application printed on the voter information guide, which is mailed to every voter by their county elections office before the election

Nick Garber contributed to this report.