Pass Area Voters: How To Track Your Ballot In 2024

BANNING, CA — Many registered Riverside County residents have likely already returned their votes for the Nov. 5 General Election, but knowing how to track your ballot is important.

Counties were required to mail out ballots by Oct. 7 — and all active, registered voters are expected to receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the general election.

California’s Secretary of State is offering a “Where’s My Ballot?” tool called BallotTrax that allows voters to monitor the status of their vote-by-mail ballot. If you’re still waiting on your ballot to arrive in the mail, this tool can also be used to sort out where it may be.

Tracking Your Ballot

Whether you drop your ballot at a dropbox, through the mail or in person at a vote center, you’ll be able to see when your ballot is accepted through the state’s tool, first developed in 2020.

Residents can visit this link to access BallotTrax. Then, enter your legal first and last name, date of birth and your current zip code. The site will then prompt you to set up text and email alerts.

Once you’re in, you can see your “current mail ballot status.” Scroll down, and you’ll also see your previous mail ballots and whether they were cast in person.

Ballot Box Collection

According to the California Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, ballots are collected on a regular basis from dropboxes.

• Ballots are retrieved from both staffed and unstaffed drop boxes at least every 96 hours, except weekends, between the 29th day before the election and the 10th day before an election.
• Ballots are retrieved from staffed drop boxes at least every 72 hours, except weekends, after the 10th day before the election through the closing of the polls on Election Day.
• Ballots are picked up from unstaffed drop boxes every 48 hours, except weekends, hours after the 10th day prior to an election through the closing of the polls on Election Day.

When the polls close on Election Day, all drop boxes shall be locked or covered at 8 p.m. and elections officials are expected to retrieve as many ballots as practical before 11:59 p.m.

Riverside County elections officials are required to certify to Weber’s office that all ballots have been retrieved from all staffed and unstaffed drop boxes.

Registering To Vote

The last day to register to vote online was Oct. 21, but you can still take advantage of same-day voter registration, also known as conditional registration — available for those who miss the deadline to register to vote or update their information before the Nov. 5 election.

Conditional Voter Registration is described as a “safety net” for eligible residents who need to register at the last minute, according to Weber’s office. These ballots are processed and counted once the county election office has completed the process of verifying the registration.

You can complete the same-day voter registration process at the following locations:

• SEARCH HERE FOR EARLY VOTE LOCATIONS OR COPY FROM THE REGISTRATION FIB YOU ALREADY FILLED OUT.

If you need to register on Election Day, you can also visit the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office located at 2720 Gateway Drive, Riverside or polling locations across Riverside County. On Nov. 5, residents will be able to access same-day voter registration and cast their ballots between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If you are voting for the first time after registering to vote by mail and you did not provide your driver's license number, California ID number, or the last four digits of your social security number on your registration form, according to the Secretary of State's office, you may be asked to show a form of ID when you arrive at the polls.

If this is the case, bring a form of ID with you or include a copy of it with your vote-by-mail ballot.

Who’s Registered To Vote In The Pass Area?

According to the latest registration report from California’s Secretary of State, 1,367,497 registered voters were in Riverside County as of Oct. 21.

Banning had 18,372 registered voters as of that report. Of those, 7,014 were registered Democrats, 6,238 were registered Republicans, and still 5,120 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.

In Beaumont, there were 35,041 registered voters. Of those,12,838 were registered Democrats, 12,541 were registered Republicans, and still 9,662 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.

As of Sept. 6, some 22,310,352 Californians had registered to vote. Of those voters, 46% had registered Democrats, while almost 25% registered as Republicans. Another 22% had no party preference, and 7% listed “other,” according to the Secretary of State.

Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Los Angeles counties had the largest increases in registered voters.

According to a Oct. 2024 report by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters:

• Banning had 18,372 registered voters. Of those, 7,014 were registered Democrats, 6,238 were registered Republicans, and still 5,120 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Beaumont had 35,041 registered voters. Of those,12,838 were registered Democrats, 12,541 were registered Republicans, and still 9,662 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Lake Elsinore had 38,775 registered voters. Of those, 14,272 were registered Democrats, 12,989 were registered Republicans, and still 11,514 more were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Murrieta had 68,157 registered voters. Of those, 20,149 were registered Democrats, 28,273 were registered Republicans, and still 19,735 more were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Palm Desert had 33,199 registered voters. Of those, 13,153 were registered Democrats, 11,674 were registered Republicans, and still 8,372 more were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Temecula had 69,417 registered voters. Of those, 21,688 were registered Democrats, 27,293 were registered Republicans, and still another 20,436 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.
• Wildomar had 22,784 registered voters. Of those, 6,490 were registered Democrats, 9,614 were registered Republicans, and still 6,680 were registered as other party or no party affiliation.

See the full Riverside County Registrar of Voters Oct. 21 breakdown of Riverside County Voters.