It’s been debated, planned for and worried about for months. And now it’s almost here: the Nov. 3 election, which will decide not just the next president, but also numerous Congressional and state legislative seats, city council and school board races, and statewide and local initiatives.
Of course, Nov. 3 is actually the end of election season and, so far, voter turnout — through mail and early walk-up voting — has been strong.
If you’re among those who still want to cast a ballot in person, or if you just want to know more about who’s already voted and what to expect on Tuesday, here’s some information that may help.
1. If I haven’t voted yet, what are my options? Can I still put my ballot in the mail? Are there COVID-safe ways to vote in person?
However you prefer to cast a ballot, the Orange County Registrar of Voters has got you covered. More than 160 vote centers will be open around the county from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, and anyone can visit whichever center they like. You’re no longer restricted to casting a walk-in ballot at a specific polling site in your neighborhood.
Don’t like standing in line? The Registrar of Voters has a map on its website showing projected wait times at each vote center. (On Monday morning, all but about a half dozen locations showed waits of 10 minutes or less.) A complete list and interactive map of vote centers are at the registrar’s website, www.ocvote.com.
If you want to use the mail ballot you received at home a few weeks ago, that’s still OK too. But your best bet to make sure it’s counted is to fill it out and drop it at a vote center or put it in one of more than 100 official drop boxes stationed around the county. Although state law allows mailed ballots to be counted if they’re postmarked on or before Nov. 3, and received by election officials by Nov. 20, the sooner it gets to the registrar the sooner it will be counted.
Also, all Orange County vote centers are following health guidelines. Masks are encouraged and poll workers have extra masks for people who forget to bring one. Hand sanitizer dispensers are plentiful and everyone gets their own pen to fill out their ballot. And the Honda Center has been established as a voting “super site,” with a drive-through option so you can cast a ballot without leaving your car.
2. What does voter turnout look like in Orange County so far?
Whether driven by enthusiasm, concern or a sense of civic duty, Orange County voter participation in this election may end up breaking records. Through Sunday, more than 1.08 million ballots had been cast, mostly by mail – which represents just over 61% turnout among the county’s 1.77 million registered voters, according to the OC Registrar’s data.
While the numbers fluctuate daily, as of Monday the county had received about 63,000 more Democrat ballots than GOP ballots (more than 398,000 versus about 335,000). That’s a wider margin than Dems’ voter registration edge over the GOP in Orange County, but election experts believe GOP voters will be more inclined than Democrats to cast ballots on Election Day, so it’s unclear what, if anything, the current edge means.
Neal Kelley, the Registrar of Voters in Orange County, has long predicted that voting by mail will continue growing in popularity, and the pandemic might accelerate that trend. This year, anticipating a huge spike, Kelley doubled his office’s capacity to process mail-in ballots, so he expects that all ballots received by Tuesday morning will be ready to be tallied up, along with in-person votes, once polls close. But there are always ballots that remain uncounted on election night, whether because of a signature mismatch or other verification issue or some other problem – and this year is expected to be no different.
Kelley has said his staff will continue to work their way through all uncounted or problematic ballots in the days after the election, and he’ll post updated results to his website daily at 5 p.m.
3. If I’m a supporter or opponent of a particular candidate or measure, can I lobby fellow voters or show my allegiance when I’m at the polls voting?
When you go to cast a ballot, leave your election signs, candidate buttons, shirts or hats in the car. While it’s legal to campaign on election day, you just can’t do it within 100 feet of the polls. California law prohibits vote center or polling place “electioneering,” meaning your political message must be delivered away from where people cast ballots.
4. So I made it to the polls on Election Day, but they’re about to close and I’m still waiting in line. What happens now?
State law gives you the right to vote as long as you’re already in line by the time polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. You can also return a mail ballot at a polling place if you’re in line before poll closing time.
5. How likely is it that fraud or cheating that might affect the election results?
Kelley, the OC registrar, has said that he has seen cases of possible fraud in his 17 years as an elections official, but most of them have been good-faith mistakes (such as someone forgetting they sent in a mail ballot and showing up to vote in person). His office works with the Orange County District Attorney, which has a election fraud hotline (714-501-4593) that people can call to report suspected malfeasance.
Kelley is constantly going over the voter rolls to remove people when there’s data to show they died, moved away or became ineligible to vote for some other reason. Voters must sign their name, either when they check in at a vote center or on their mail ballot envelope, and those signatures are checked against what the registrar has on file.
The county’s election system also includes a unique bar code on each voter’s ballot, which makes it harder to create a fake ballot that goes undetected. Once a voter’s mail ballot is received and processed, the system marks them as having voted so they can’t vote again at vote center, and likewise, casting a ballot at a vote center automatically voids a person’s unvoted mail ballot.
6. Will we know who won on election night?
It’s hard to tell. Millions of votes have been cast already, but many states don’t allow vote tabulation to begin until polls close on election night.
A few key states – including Florida and Texas – are expected to offer close-to-complete vote counts a few hours after their polls close, probably by midnight West Coast time. But many other states – including Pennsylvania – are likely to be counting for several days. Several local races also might hang in the balance during the days that votes are being counted.
Post-election vote counting is normal. Also, every state counts all ballots equally, whether they’re cast in person or returned by mail or in an official drop box.
"six" - Google News
November 03, 2020 at 07:19AM
https://ift.tt/3oTEoG4
Election Day 2020: Six things to know - OCRegister
"six" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dcBbL9
https://ift.tt/2Wis8la
No comments:
Post a Comment