Sen. Barbara Boxer Casts November Ballot In November Election

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., cast her ballot today for the Nov. 2 general election, joining hundreds of Riverside County residents who are getting their votes in early.

Boxer, a resident of Rancho Mirage, showed up to cast her ballot at 10 a.m. at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office on Gateway Drive in Riverside.

The three-term incumbent’s Republican challenger is former Hewlett- Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who has underscored her executive experience in the private sector and anti-tax position while characterizing Boxer as a tax-and- spend liberal.

Boxer’s camp has pointed to Fiorina’s downsizing at HP as evidence of corporate greed and highlighted the senator’s support for the $862 billion stimulus bill and “clean energy” projects as contributors to job growth.

Boxer’s early vote will not be counted until a week before the Nov. 2 election.

Under California law, ballots cannot be tabulated until seven business days before an election. However, ballots can be provided to voters 30 days prior.

The last day to register to vote is Oct. 18. The last day to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 26.

As of Oct. 9, 367,822 ballots have been sent out so far to county residents registered to vote absentee and just over 1,000 ballots have been cast, according to the registrar’s website.

In addition to the registrar’s office, there are 59 other ballot drop- off sites — primarily city halls and public libraries — throughout the county where voters can deposit their ballots, if they don’t want to mail them.

In the Nov. 8, 2008, general election, 657,000 Riverside County residents cast ballots — roughly 40 percent by mail. In the June 8 primary this year, nearly 60 percent of votes were absentee.

According to Chief Deputy Registrar Rebecca Spencer, the registrar’s office will shift to 24-hour operations on Oct. 22 and remain in that mode until the votes are completely tallied.