Voters Choice Act makes voting easier this Election Sesaon

With the Presidential election coming up in a couple months, it’s important to make sure you’re registered to vote. 

“Registering to vote is really easy. you can do it online at https://registertovote.ca.gov/. You can do it here in our office, you can fill out a form and we’ll process it right here in front of you. You can also pick up a voter registration form at the post office, at a library, or at many public buildings. Those are postage paid. So you can go ahead and fill them out, pop them in the mail, and they’ll get to us. it’s critical to register as soon as possible”, says Juan Cervantes of the Humboldt Office of Elections. 

Since the implementation of the voters choice act during the last primary, voting in California has become a lot easier.

“The idea is that we expand the opportunity for folks to vote. So with the Voters Choice Act, it allows us to have every location be a satellite office. So you can go in, you can register, you do everything that you can do in here.  No longer is it the case that you go to a place on Election Day and you’re told it’s the wrong place, and so every place is the right place if it’s a vote center. And so you could go to any one of them if you, if you live in Hoopa and you’re working in McKinleyville, you can pop into a McKinleyville vote center and vote”, he says. 

The Voters Choice Act also ensures there’s plenty of places to drop off your ballot. 

“We have them, you know, in several grocery stores throughout the county. raise Ace Hardware. and then every USPS blue mailbox is essentially a drop box. So you can pop that ballot in the mail, with the signed, and sealed envelope and any, any, mail drop box in the county.  And so we’ve looked, to really optimize things and we’ve, we’ve increased a couple of, vote centers. We’ll have one at Cal Poly, and we’ll have additional ones in, McKinleyville, Eureka, and Arcata. But we’re also opening up an express lane when it comes to voting”, says Cervantes. 

If you made any changes this summer it’s important to update your information so you can receive the proper voting materials relevant to your jurisdiction.

Story by Tucker Caraway