Voter 411: Where to go and how to vote on Election Day
Election Day is Tuesday, November 6th — less than two weeks away. More than one million people have registered to vote in Riverside County alone.
If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late. You can do something called “Conditional Voter Registration” — you’ll just have to vote in person at the Registrar of Voters in Riverside at any point on or before Election Day.
And if you are already registered, the county has some great resources available online to help you, including a ‘Ballot Drop-off Site Locator’ for those wishing to find a spot close to them to drop-off their ballot before Election Day. They also have a ‘Polling Place Locator’ feature for those who want to find a place to vote on Election Day.
We asked the Registrar some basic questions to get this year’s voting 411:
Q: Since 70% of voters in Riverside County now vote by mail, when is the deadline to mail in your ballot?
A: “We’ve mailed out about 700,000 vote-by-mail ballots and those are due back here…they have to be postmarked on or before Election Day and received within three days after Election Day,” said Rebecca Spencer, from the Registrar of Voters, Riverside County.
Q: For voters concerned with hacking, what is the Registrar doing to keep votes safe and secure?
A: “Our ballot counting network…it’s not even connected to our regular network. There are two firewalls: there’s the county firewall as well as the registrar of voters firewall, so we have lots of security protocols and measures in place to prevent any kind of hacking,” said Spencer.
Q: Is the Coachella Valley more likely to vote blue or vote red?
“There are more registered democrats in the Coachella Valley area: 82,000 are Democratic, 58,000 are Republican, and 43,000 are no party preference,” said Spencer.
The Registrar also tells us Riverside County used to be mostly registered Republicans. But in 2016, those numbers shifted to favor the Democrats.
Either way — the Registrar is encouraging everyone to get out the vote: “It’s part of their Constitutional right so we encourage it for everybody and that’s what our office is here for — to help them cast their ballot,” said Spencer.
There will also be an early voting opportunity this Friday through Sunday at the Westfield Mall in Palm Desert, open 10am to 4pm to anyone who has already registered.
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