News

Voting by mail, drop box a big part of turnout on a rainy midterm Election Day

Excerpts:

Despite the rain Tuesday, election officials in the Sacramento region say early impressions of voter turnout are relatively consistent with the rates of voting in midterm elections. 

Ballots will continue to be counted and tabulated over the following days and weeks, so a fuller picture of turn-out won’t be available immediately – ballots postmarked by Election Day may arrive up to a week later, meaning a more solid snapshot of turn-out won’t be available until at least Nov. 15.  

Election Day | Last Minute Tips | Latino Vote | Author ‘Bravo Company: An Afghanistan Deployment and its Aftermath.’

Kim Alexander, President of the California Voter Foundation, joins us to navigate last-minute voting in California and the greater Sacramento area. We will also discuss new protections afforded to election day workers and monitor any news regarding irregularities or voter intimidation across the country and here at home. (Full Audio, scroll down to "Last minute voting tips")

Forget election night results. Answers might take days or weeks in some L.A. races

Excerpts:

Celebratory confetti blanketed the Grove on primary night, as developer Rick Caruso — then sporting a multipoint lead in the Los Angeles mayor’s race — declared his to be a “victory story.”

Across town in Highland Park, an exhausted Eunisses Hernandez had already headed home from her election night party at a local bar. Her opponent, incumbent Councilmember Gil Cedillo, was leading by more than 10 percentage points. Hernandez remained hopeful, though some supporters had begun mourning what they thought to be a loss.

Yes, Threats Against Election Officials (and Voters) Are Real. But the Law Is Fighting Back, Says California Election Expert

Concerns about the rise in political violence are reverberating from the White House to state Capitols to local elections offices.

In a pre-midterm elections speech Wednesday, President Joe Biden warned about threats to democracy and referred to the recent attack against Paul Pelosi in his San Francisco home, as part of an alleged attempt to kidnap House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta also expressed caution during a Wednesday news conference in San Francisco, urging elected officials to review their safety protocols.

News Roundup: Long vote counts, drop box access & 11/7 Election Hero Day

Hi Folks,

The November 8th Election Day is rapidly approaching. Millions of Californians have already voted and millions more will return ballots or vote in person in the coming days, with many ballots returned via secure drop boxes operated by county election offices. 

This shift to the widespread use of vote-by-mail ballots has led to increasingly longer vote counts. In this newsletter, we share some new CVF research findings that illustrate just how much longer vote counting now takes as the number of ballots cast as vote-by-mail ballots has ballooned. 

"They are purposeful and deliberate": Election experts alarmed after MAGA attacks take a darker turn

Excerpts:

Wealthy Republican donor Robert Beadles offered two options to county commissioners when falsely accusing Nevada's Washoe County registrar of voters of counting fraudulent votes: "either fire her or lock her up."

Following the meeting, County Registrar Deanna Spikula's office was inundated with threats and harassing calls from people convinced she was part of an effort to rig the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump, according to an investigation by Reuters. 

Marin County rejected 1.7% of primary ballots, state says

Excerpts:

Marin County elections officials disqualified 1,405 mail ballots in the June primary election, according to data recently released by the California Secretary of State’s office.

That accounts for 1.7% of the 82,502 ballots submitted. Most of the rejected ballots — 1,212 — arrived late. By comparison, California disqualified 1.6% of its vote-by-mail ballots, or 105,818. Of those, 70,000 were late.

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