Military Mail-In Ballots Going Out January 5th

California primary ballots for those in the military or overseas began going out on Friday, sparking the first wave of by-mail ballots going out before primary election day on March 5th.

According to the California Secretary of State’s Office and the California Elections Code, by-mail voting will ramp up over the next few months. Military and overseas voter ballots can begin to go out 60 days before an election, but must go out at the latest by January 20th, to give ample time for delivery and returning. County elections offices will then begin printing ballots for those in California, with the ballots to go out by February 5th. The following day, all ballot drop-off locations will then open.

In-person early voting will be the next milestone, with vote centers open for early in-person voting in all Voter’s Choice Act counties, which includes the counties of Sacramento, Alameda, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego. Election day is then on March 5th, with in-person voting officially being statewide, as well as being the last date to postmark all vote-by-mail ballots. All mail-in ballots will continue to be counted as long as they are received by March 12th.

The drawn out voting process in the primary is, like previous election years, not expected to produce winners in highly contested elections overnight. While there is still another two months of campaigning for the primary elections, it could mean that certain U.S. House, Assembly, state Senate elections, as well as the U.S. Senate election, may not see final tallies and victories until late March.

“We are seeing a lot of close primary elections this year,” said Southern Californian election advisor Victoria Hall to the Globe on Friday. “Luckily for California, this doesn’t apply to the presidential. Trump will definitely be on the ballot, and he right now is polling in the 60s total. He’d have to majorly mess up at this point to lose California and their huge number of delegates. Biden has a similar edge for the Democratic primary.”

“No, we’re talking about all the House races with three or more major candidates, like the 45th down in Orange County where Michelle Steel (R-CA) is taking on several Democrats at once. A lot of state elections fit this bill too. And, like you said, the big Senate election has four candidates polling above 10% right now: [Congressional members Adam] Schiff, [Katie] Porter, [Barbara] Lee (D-CA) and [Steve] Garvey for the GOP. Schiff is all but certain getting a spot, and those trickling in of late ballots could be the difference for one of the final three. Several House races in the last general cycle, such as Congressman [John] Duarte (R-CA), went down to the wire because of those.”

“Yeah, the craziness begins today, 60 days out. Californians in the military or overseas will get those ballots soon, and it is only going to build up from there. And this is only for the primary election mind you. The general in November is going to go through the same thing.”

More updates on by-mail ballots are expected to be released by the state in the next two months.