June 3 Vote-by-Mail Ballot Request Deadline is Tuesday.

The deadline to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot for the June 3, 2014 Primary Election is Tuesday, May 27. As of today, more than 70,661 of Santa Cruz County’s 141,105 registered voters have requested to vote by mail.

To request a vote-by-mail ballot, voters may complete an application that can be found on the back cover of the county’s Sample Ballot and Voter’s Information Pamphlet that has been mailed to voters. Voters may also complete and submit an application online at www.votescount.com or call us at 831-454-2060. Vote-by-mail ballot applications are also available at the City Clerk’s Offices in Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and Watsonville.

Many voters use the vote-by-mail applications supplied by various political campaigns. Santa Cruz County election officials, however, stress that voters have the legal right to mail or deliver the applications directly to the local elections official rather than the political campaign.  Returning vote-by-mail applications to anyone other than the elections official may cause a delay that could interfere with the voter’s right to vote, officials warned.

Voters may also obtain a ballot at the County Clerk/Elections Department in Santa Cruz and the Watsonville City Clerk’s Office at 275 Main Street, 4th Floor (6th Floor of the parking garage) during regular business hours. In addition to the regular business hours, the offices will offer weekend voting on May 31 and June 1, Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Ballots require 71-cents postage to return in the mail. The County Clerk has set up a special account at the post office to cover the cost of insufficient postage. Voters who have a green ballot return envelope are not required to affix postage as they were assigned to a mail ballot precinct and did not have the option of going to vote at a polling place.

Instead of mailing the ballot, voters may drop their vote-by-mail ballot in one of two convenient drop boxes: one in Santa Cruz and the other in Watsonville. The drop boxes are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and no postage is required. The vote-by-mail ballot drop box in Santa Cruz is a white mailbox-style receptacle that is located in front of the County Government Center. The vote-by-mail drop box in Watsonville is located in the parking lot behind City Hall and in front of the Police Department on Union Street. It is a green box, typically reserved for dropping off payments to the City, but has been made available now for voters to deposit their voted ballots.

Santa Cruz County voters may also drop their voted ballot off at any polling place in Santa Cruz County on Election Day. In addition, county voters may return their voted ballot during regular business hours to the County Clerk/Elections Department in Santa Cruz, or the City Clerks' offices in Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley or Watsonville during regular business hours. Ballots must be received by an elections official in the county of the voter’s residence no later than 8 p.m. on June 3, 2014, postmark is not acceptable.

A vote-by-mail voter, however, who, because of illness or other physical disability, is unable to return the ballot, may designate his or her spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister or person residing in the same household to return the ballot to the county Elections Department, City Clerk's office, or to any polling place on Election Day.  The authorization for another person to return the vote-by-mail ballot is located on the back of the ballot return envelope.

It is extremely important for voters to sign their vote-by-mail ballot return envelope, in addition to completing all of the other information requested, including the address where the voter lives in Santa Cruz County.

Unfortunately, if there is no signature on the vote-by-mail ballot return envelope or if the signature on the envelope does not compare to the voter’s signature on his or her voter’s registration card, election officials cannot count the ballot.

After May 27, voters may still obtain a ballot at the Santa Cruz County Clerk/Elections Department and Watsonville City Clerk’s Office.  Voters who want to get a ballot during the final week prior to Election Day, need to be unable to go to the polls due to illness, disability or absence from their precinct on Election Day. A separate application available at the Santa Cruz and Watsonville voting centers and online after May 27 must be completed.

If voters are unable to come in and obtain a ballot personally during the six days before and including Election Day, they may provide a written statement allowing an authorized representative of the voter to obtain the ballot on the voter’s behalf.

If any voter requires assistance with voting or needs a ballot delivered to them, please contact the Santa Cruz County Clerk/Elections Department and arrangements can be made.

For more information, please call the Santa Cruz County Clerk/Elections Department at 831-454-2060, 1-866-282-5900 (toll-free), or visit our website at www.votescount.com