In the upcoming general election on Nov. 3, Sonoma County voters can expect normal and safe conditions compared to what is being heard about in so many other parts of the country where jurisdictions are not as practiced at voting by mail. Adding to the voting balancing act is the possibility of high turnouts while having to navigate pandemic-related social distancing and precautions.
While there are hundreds of partisan legal challenges elsewhere about what ballots should be counted, who’s eligible and when a vote is not a vote, there are no such potential ballot counting nightmares expected here, according to Registrar of Voters Deva Marie Proto.
A few hundred voters displaced by the recent wildfires should verify their mailing address with the registrar’s office. Their ballots will be mailed to the previous address on file even if that is the location of a burned property. Impacted voters can temporarily or permanently change their address prior to Oct. 5. This can be done by phone at the registrar’s office, 707-565-6800.
“We’ve been doing vote-by-mail for many years and we now have 82% of our registered voters on our permanent mail voter lists,” said Proto.
The biggest change county voters will see on Nov. 3 is a relocation of most physical polling places. To meet COVID-19 pandemic safety measures, larger buildings had to be secured and no schools can be used due to related safety concerns.
All registered voters will be mailed ballots on Oct. 5 and can begin voting right away by completing their ballots, adding a signature and returning them in the blue envelope with pre-paid postage.
Beginning Oct. 31, some 30 physical locations will be open where voters can drop off completed ballots. These locations will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 and on Election Day, Nov. 3 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some of these locations include: Bodega Bay Yacht Club, Cloverdale Citrus Fair, Alexander Valley Hall, Graton Community Center, Healdsburg’s Villa Chanticleer, Guerneville Veteran’s Memorial Hall, Sonoma County Fairgrounds’ Kraft Hall, Windsor Town Hall, Gold Ridge Fire Station and Sebastopol Community Center.
There also will be 20 indoor locations with secured drop boxes for returning completed ballots, which will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some of these locations include: Bodega Bay Fire Station, Geyserville Fire Station, Cloverdale Veteran’s Memorial Building, Healdsburg City Hall, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Guerneville Library, the Jenner fire house and the Bluebird Center in Windsor.
All ballots mailed and postmarked by Election Day will be counted so long as they arrive at the Registrar of Voter’s office by Nov. 20. Proto has until Dec. 1 to certify the election results as official.
“We want everyone to vote safely and to vote early,” said Proto.
While she is predicting a very heavy turnout (89-90%), Proto said she is not expecting any major wrinkles or disruptions unless there is natural disaster or power outage.
“We’ve been lucky the last few years because the wildfires we had during elections were in odd years (2017 and 2019) when we only had small, very local elections,” Proto said.
Sonoma County completed a major paper-based voter system upgrade in 2017. All received ballots are scanned by computers with poll volunteers and registrar staff confirming all signatures by eye and hand-checking any ballots unable to be read by the computers. Proto said ballot “spoilage” has been very low in previous county elections.
“If we see a contested signature we will send that voter a notice and they will have the opportunity to correct their ballot prior to Nov. 20,” she said.
Proto said she has enough Election Day staff and polling place volunteers to manage the election. Worker orientation begins in a few weeks, mostly online with some limited in-person training.
For complete voter information, visit http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/CRA/Registrar-of-Voters or call 707-565-6800.
