Early In-Person Voting, By-Mail Voting Begins In California

Both in-person early voting and mail-in voting began in California Monday, becoming one of seven states to have such early voting in the country.

While early voting through absentee ballots have been around for well over a century, it wasn’t until recently that states like California began ramping up ways to vote early. During COVID-19, the government said the need for people to vote away from crowded polling places led to California to pass AB 860 in June 2020, making it law to send by-mail ballots to every California registered voter. While AB 860 only allowed mail-in ballots to be sent to everyone through the 2022 mid-terms, the popularity and ease of the mail-in ballots going to everyone, as well as the noticeable jump in people voting as a result, led to AB 37, which made mail-in ballots going to all permanent.

Dates to send in ballots also came earlier, with the beginning post-mark date now coinciding with the date that early voters were allowed to vote in polling places across the state. Concerns over these voting methods has led to a huge debate over them, especially mail-in ballots. Many argue that mail-in ballots can lead to increased voter fraud, confusion over how to vote, and even rejected votes. The number of rejected ballots did increase since the mandatory mail-in ballot was put into place, including over 100,000 ballots, or roughly 1.5% of the votes, being rejected during the 2020 primary by the state. In response, the state has cracked down, but with many still pulling for more security in ballot drop-off locations and even AB 37 being reversed and a return to the absentee ballot system where voters would need to ask the state for a mail-in ballot.

Despite the early voting and mail-in ballot laws still being pushed, early voting began in California Monday, with the state joining Texas, Montana, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and South Carolina to be the first states to offer it this year. In California, in-person early voting and drop off voting are now available, with dates and locations varying across the state for both of the methods. By-mail ballots will need to be postmarked by November 5th in order to be counted by election day, with drop-off voting ending the same as in-person voting at 8 P.M. on November 5th. Online voting is not available, with only voter registration being allowed online through October 21st in order to get mail-in ballots sent out on time.

While California’s early voting is not expected to have a major change on the Presidential race in California, other races are likely to be affected by early voting. Most notably are the 6 tight House elections in the state, the result of which could tip the balance of the House for either party depending on the outcome.

“It’s good that mail-in ballots are increasing the number of people voting and giving more time for people to read up on issues and candidates, but this election will have so many races really come down to the wire,” Rachel Kaufman, a legal advisor who has assisted in ballot and election cases in California, told the Globe Monday. “There are many people who will be looking at mail-in rejection percentages or keeping glued to hear about drop off places being gone after. The big thing, by far, will be rejected mail-in ballots though. They are a huge amount of rejected ballots. In-person voting will guarantee a counted vote without having to check later on. Mail-in and other methods work too, but remember to follow up to see if it was received and accepted. Voting in-person can always be a backup in case a signature or something isn’t accepted.

“Every County is going to be scrutinized very much during counting, and they’re being as transparent as they can possibly be now. Here in California, Los Angeles and Orange Counties will be very open about things because of numerous close races. And, as bad as it will be in California, every swing state will have even worse scrutiny because of how close this election is.”

Election day this year is to be held on November 5th, less than a month away.