How and when Californians vote can help protect our elections
If voters statewide choose to get their ballots in early, we can slash the time it takes to count California’s votes.
Five steps to a faster count!
Check your registration
Have you moved to a new county? Make sure your address is current at registertovote.ca.gov.
Decide how you want to vote
See where to learn about your ballot below.
Voting in person?
- Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM on Election Day.
- Find voting places at sos.ca.gov/elections/polling-place or in your county voter pamphlet.
- To vote early, see sos.ca.gov/elections/voting-info/ways-vote.
Voting by mail?
- Drop your ballot in an official ballot drop box: caearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov.
- Drop it off a week before the election so it can be counted on Election Night.
Did you know you can track your ballot?
Get text or email alerts when your ballot is mailed, received and counted at wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov.
These steps reduce the work county election officials have to do between the close of polls and the posting of decisive results, which speeds things up and means voters get results faster!
Mark your calendar...
- Every registered voter is automatically mailed a ballot.
- You do not need to put your ballot in the mail. Every county has official ballot drop boxes. Find yours here: caearlyvoting.sos.ca.gov.
- California also has same-day voter registration (provisional voting). It’s there if you need it, but registering early helps election officials process votes faster.
Your County Elections Office has answers!
Elections are run at the county level and your County Elections Office should have all the information you need about when, where, and how to vote, where you live:
Find your County Elections OfficeThis list from the California Secretary of State covers all 58 County Elections Offices, with links to their websites, phone numbers, addresses and contact information.
Deciding How to Vote
Filling out a ballot with 14 statewide ballot measures in addition to possible local measures and candidate races can feel like a major hill to climb.
It’s critical to remember that voting is not a test. Vote for the items you have a clear view on, and feel free to skip questions on which you feel uncertain.
Getting together with friends, classmates, work colleagues, or neighbors to talk through the ballot before you decide how to vote can be a great way to make progress in feeling prepared to make these choices. You’ll discover you know more than you thought about reasons to vote for or against different candidates or issues. Simply talking through the options with a group who bring different perspectives as well as knowledge to the discussion can be very helpful.
Where to Find Information That Helps You Make Your Own Informed Decisions
And when this is all done, go get an ice cream cone with a friend and get ready to learn who got elected and what measures passed!
Remember, around 13 million votes will be cast in California before or on November 3 – your election officials will get through them as fast as they can, while also confirming signatures match, voters are properly registered, bubbles have been filled in properly, and so on.
To end where we started, VOTERS have a huge role in how quickly election workers can finalize those results – the more of us who can get our ballots in early, the faster we’ll have results, so Tell Your Friends and invite others to vote early with you!!