If you missed the registration deadline to vote in the Nov. 6 election, don’t fret: Residents can still vote through Election Day using the “conditional voting” process at the Elections Office.
Deputy County Clerk Angela Curro spoke with San Benito Live about several election-related matters leading up to next Tuesday. For one, with new legislation passed in 2017, residents who aren’t registered by the Oct. 22 deadline can still vote at the Elections Office, she noted.
“You can’t do it at a polling place,” Curro said. “It has to be in our office. We register you in our office.”
That office is located on Fifth Street next to the San Benito County Free Library and San Benito County Office of Education building. The Elections Office is on the second floor of the old courthouse.
The conditional voting process is possible because of a statewide voter database put together by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Voters who haven’t mailed their ballots will want to consider filling out their ballots at the Elections Office as well, because Tuesday was the last day when it was guaranteed ballots would reach the county before Election Day. As for voters who say they didn’t receive their ballots in the mail?
“We always have voters call and say they didn’t get it,” Curro said. “We’ve been working closely with the post office so they can follow through and see if anything’s happening with that.”
Curro said there wasn’t an unusually large number of those issues this election season.
Curro also noted late Tuesday there had been almost 5,000 ballots received by the Elections Office among more than 30,000 registered voters. That amounts to about 17 percent of the eligible voters, compared with a statewide average of about 10 percent returned by that day.
“It’s a good amount for a mid-term election,” she said.
It’s not the highest in the state or anything, though, as some smaller counties that are mail-only are at nearly 30 percent turnout already, she said.
Otherwise, everything is running smoothly, and training sessions are continuing for elections workers, such as learning about the new electronic voter rosters that are replacing the hard-copy books.
Elections officials believe the electronic version offers better security because it’s easier to cross-check whether voters already handed in ballots.
Election update: Mail turnout high so far; unregistered voters can still cast ballots
