Out of County Voters Need to Plan Ahead

College students, traveling business people, and others who are registered to vote in a county other than Santa Cruz, need to plan ahead in order to vote in the June 3 election.

California law requires voters to obtain a ballot from their county of residence and that ballot must be returned to that county of residence by 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.

For example, a UCSC student who is registered to vote in San Diego County needs to request a ballot be mailed to her in time for her to vote it and return it by mail to San Diego County no later than 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.

“Voters who are registered outside of Santa Cruz County and will not be home to vote on Election Day are encouraged to contact their county Elections Office now and ask for a ballot to be mailed to them at their address in Santa Cruz County,” County Clerk Gail Pellerin said. “And, voters need to be sure to mail their ballots back to the county of residence no later than a week before the election.”

Ballots must be received by the county of residence no later than 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3. Postal delivery times can vary, and it can take 5 to 7 days for a piece of mail to reach its destination. 

Counties like Santa Cruz who have a population of residents who are actually registered to vote outside of Santa Cruz County have a huge challenge to make sure those residents know their voting rights.

If you are not registered to vote in Santa Cruz County by the deadline, Monday, May 19, you are not eligible to vote in Santa Cruz County. And, ballots from other counties that are returned to a Santa Cruz County polling place may not be counted according to the law.

“There are efforts to change the law,” Pellerin said, “but for June 3, the law says a voter must vote in the county where he/she is registered, and vote-by-mail ballots must be returned to the county that issued it no later than 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.”

Every election voters from another county turn in their voted vote-by-mail ballots to Santa Cruz County, and those votes cannot be counted.

As of today, more than 70,000 of Santa Cruz County’s 141,000 registered voters have requested to vote by mail. The deadline to request a ballot is May 27. However, if voters are requesting a ballot from outside the county, they are encouraged to do it at least a week before that deadline in order to allow sufficient time for the ballot to be mailed to the voter and the voter to return the ballot to their county of residence.

To request a vote-by-mail ballot, voters can 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 and is available online. Voters may also complete and submit an application online at www.votescount.com or call the county Elections Office 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 elections 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.

Early voting at the County Clerk/Elections Department in Santa Cruz and the Watsonville City Clerk’s Office at 275 Main Street, 4th Floor, continues to be available during regular weekday hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Watsonville City Clerk’s Office is closed on Fridays. In addition to the regular business hours, the offices will offer weekend voting on May 31 and June 1, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.