Is it too late for Sacramento voters to mail in their ballot? No, but be aware of this
Sacramento-area voters, taking advantage of multiple ways of voting, are hitting record numbers heading into the last weekend before the Nov. 3 voting deadline day.
More than 43% of all registered Placer County voters have submitted ballots via mail or official county drop boxes. Sacramento County has hit the 40% mark. Yolo County topped 36% as of last weekend.
But, in the final days, concern has again popped up about one method: Mail-in balloting.
In a generic warning to voters, the U.S. Postal Service nationally has recommended voters not put ballots in the mail less than a week away from the deadline. “For ... voters who choose to use the mail to return a completed ballot, our general recommendation is, as a common-sense measure, to mail your completed ballot before Election Day, and at least one week prior to your state’s deadline.”
That advise has caused some confusion. That is because, in California and many other states, a ballot dropped in the mail faces two deadlines, not one.
The first deadline is the better known of the two: The voter must make sure his or her ballot is postmarked by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
Then, under California rules, the Postal Service must deliver that ballot to county voter officials within 17 days for final counting by Nov. 20. If it doesn’t get there by then, it doesn’t count.
As long as a California voter meets the Nov. 3 postmark deadline, that is more than two weeks ahead of the final vote-count deadline the Postal Service is required to meet.
The Postal Service declined comment for this article, but has said in previous press releases that “timely delivery of the nation’s Election Mail ... is our number one priority and we are working closely with state and local election officials across the country to meet this goal.”
Elections officials in the Sacramento region this week said they have not experienced problems with ballot mail deliveries and do not expect any.
California voters are lucky in that sense. The state’s Nov. 20 deadline for postal delivery is one of the most extended in the country. That gives the Postal Service more than two weeks to get the last ballots to election officials.
Nevertheless, there has been tension involving the Postal Service during this election season after it was revealed months ago that the Trump Administration intended to cut funding for the service prior to the election, limiting the service’s processing capacity during what has turned out to be the biggest early-voting election season in history. Postal Service officials have since backed off on major cost cutting amid court fights.
While elections officials say they remain confident in the Postal Service, a leading consumer expert on voting says California has made it easy for people to avoid that worry.
David Becker, head of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said California voters who fill out their ballot at home can drop it in the mail box, but they also could just as easily drop it directly in one of their county’s official ballot drop boxes. Or they can take it to a vote center (formerly called polling place) and hand it directly to officials.
“That way you eliminate the middle man (postal service), and deliver it directly to election officials,” Becker said.
Sacramento County has 71 drop boxes stationed around the county, and, by Saturday, will have 84 vote centers open for in-person voting or ballot drop-off. Those centers will be open daily through Nov. 3.
Sacramento County has 18 voting centers now open for daily in-person voting as well, and will open another 66 on Saturday morning. All voting centers will remain open each day through Nov. 3.
In that sense, California has largely transformed itself from a state where everyone goes to neighborhood polling places on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, and instead has created a near month-long voting season, with multiple ways to cast a ballot.
Voting officials are strongly encouraging people to vote soon, rather than wait until Nov. 3, regardless of whether they put their ballot in the mail, or in a drop box, or vote in person at a vote center.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 9:32 AM.