Vu On Voting: Registrar On Where, When and How

October 2, 2020 at 2:13 PM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 Speaker 2: 00:39 Speaker 1: 00:41 Speaker 2: 00:47 Speaker 1: 00:57 Speaker 2: 01:01 Speaker 1: 01:27 Speaker 2: 01:32 Speaker 2: 02:17 Speaker 1: 03:01 Speaker 2: 03:14 Speaker 1: 04:08 Speaker 2: 04:14 Speaker 1: 04:52 Speaker 2: 04:58 Speaker 1: 05:58 Speaker 2: 06:00 Speaker 1: 06:29 Speaker 2: 06:40 Speaker 1: 06:52 Speaker 2: 07:02 Speaker 1: 07:04 The stunning news that president Trump has tested positive for Corona virus puts an added twist into an already to multipurpose election season. And it puts an even sharper focus on how voters can stay safe when casting their ballots. This year, every registered voter in California is about to get a ballot in the mail that they can fill out and return to the registrar in a number of different ways. And in person voting will still be available at polling places around the County. Johnny me to talk about the mechanics of voting in the November election is Michael Vogue, San Diego County, registrar of voters. And Michael, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me again. Now I've had a number of people ask me, when are we going to get our ballots? Well, voters should start receiving their ballot in their mailbox starting on October 5th. So we are short three days away from that timeframe. Will the ballots come with the usual voter information guide? Actually the sample ballot and voter information pamphlets started going out, uh, last Thursday. And so those will continue to be mailed out until all of the, uh, sample ballot and voter information pamphlets. The local ones are into everyone's hands and into their respective mailbox. Now we also send out 180,000 voters, their sample ballot and voter information pamphlet through email because they signed up to receive there's a pamphlet electronically. What are the different ways that voters can turn in their mail ballots? Uh, there are a number of different ways. Uh, certainly the one that I highly recommend because we are providing a prepaid postage envelope because we have such confidence in the us postal service. Uh, this is not our first go around in terms of the total number of people that vote by mail in our County. We are used to voting by mail here. In fact, if we were not having this pandemic, if the governor didn't issue an executive order that every voter would receive a mail ballot, 78% of the electorate would have already received a mail ballot because they are signed up to be a prevent mail ballot voter. And there are thousands of collection boxes out there that the us postal service serves each respective day. If you don't want to do that, we will have doubled the number of mail ballot drop off locations in this upcoming elections. And they will be open four times as long as compared to the March presidential primary election. Uh, that program will start on October 6th, so effectively on October 5th, they can actually turn it in to any one of our mailbox drop off locations. Now out of those hundred 26, Melville drop off locations, 125 of them are staffed, and then we've got one nail ballot drop off box that's open 24 seven. And then if you don't want to do any of those starting on October 31st, 235 at super poles locations will be open not just for election day, but there'll be actually opened on October 31st, November 1st, November 2nd. And then also on November 3rd. And for people who might have concerns, because there have been concerns raised about the integrity of how the postal service will deliver the mail in ballots. Voters can actually track their mail in ballots can't they? That is correct. I think what voters are hearing from a national level is making them skeptical about the us postal service. Uh, let me just counteract that, uh, you know, we have a very close, uh, communication and partnership with the us postal service because our voters have preferred to vote by mail and they haven't ever done us wrong in the past. I don't expect them to do any different disco around. Um, we have a new service called where's my ballot. Uh, you can go to our website@sdvote.com and sign up and subscribe. It's free of charge where you put in your email or your cell phone number, and you can get text messages, emails, or voice calls, or all three of them as to the status of your mail ballot, as it's traveling to you and into your mailbox. And then after you voted as it's traveling back to our office and when we've received it and accepted the ballot And last but not least, uh, voters can still drop off their mail in ballot at a polling place on election days, right. We will have 235 poles locations throughout the entire County that a voter can drop off their mail ballot and they will be open starting on October 31st through November 3rd. I think that's pretty significant. Number one, we won't have because of this pandemic, nearly 1600 neighborhood polling places. And so we, we have created 235 superpose locations, much larger facilities, um, but they will be open for a four day period as opposed to a one day period. Uh, that is normally traditionally what occurs during a statewide may Pedro election cycle, like we're conducting And can people still do early in person voting at the registrar's office? Uh, yes. So the same day as voter should start receiving their mail ballot in their mailbox, we will open our office for what is in office early voting for individuals who want to come to our office and vote. And as you can imagine, uh, we have, uh, provided a safe and healthy environment for all of our voters. So voters should now expect that there will be plexiglass voters should expect that there will be social distancing requirements. Make sure you bring your mask and wear your mask. As all of these will be a requirement as you enter the building, be ready to wait in a long line. If the turnout is high end, I anticipate that it is a presidential election. And so I anticipate we will have a high turnout in this upcoming election. So that's one of the reasons why we're asking all voters because they're receiving a mail ballot to vote it, uh, and return it back through the us postal service or any of the other options that we've discussed today. When will the registrar's office begin counting Mail in ballots? We have the ability to start processing ballots. As soon as we receive it back from the voter before we could verify the signature off of a mail ballot, uh, but we would have to hold onto it until the 14th day prior to the election while the legislature and the governor stepped in and passed a new law specifically for this election, that allows us to not just signature verify that mail ballot. Um, but also after it's been verified, open it and scan it into our tabulation system. Most people vote by mail as you're expecting them to and drop off their mail in ballot before election day, we should have a pretty good idea of results on election day, at least here in California. Isn't that right? Yes. The earlier that we can get the ballots back from voters, the mail ballots back from voters there, we can verify it and open them up and get them into our tabulation systems. I've been speaking with Michael VU, San Diego County, registrar of voters, someone I'm probably going to be speaking to a great deal in the, in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for talking with us. Thanks so much, Marie, listen For more about president Trump's Corona virus diagnosis coming up on the KPBS round table at 1230.

By KPBS Public Media

San Diego County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu has got it covered. The 2020 Presidential Election may be unlike any other, but Vu and his staff seem to have prepared for all contingencies, from balloting to tabulating.