How To Vote By Mail In California: 2020 General Election

Nick Garber
·2 min read

CALIFORNIA — Worried about visiting a polling place on Election Day in November in the middle of a pandemic? Have no fear: every voter in California will receive a ballot in the mail before this fall’s general election, allowing residents to cast their ballots safely.

That’s due to an executive order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in May, as part of an effort to encourage voting by mail due to the coronavirus.

How to vote by mail

Once your mailed-in ballot is completed, it can be inserted into the provided envelope and sent to your local county elections office.

You can also return your ballot by:

  • Bringing it in-person to any nearby polling place or elections office before 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 3.

  • Dropping it into one of your county’s ballot drop boxes before 8 p.m. on Election Day.

  • Authorizing someone else to return the ballot on your behalf. (If you do this, you must fill out the authorization form on the back of the ballot envelope you receive.)

If you are not yet registered to vote, you can register online here, up until October 19. California also offers same-day registration, which can be done on Election Day at your local polling place.

If you need to change your address to vote by mail, you can:

  • Write to your local county elections official

  • Fill out this online application, print, sign, and date it, and then mail it to your county elections office. (Also available in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese)

  • Or, fill out the application printed on the voter information guide, which is mailed to every voter by their county elections office before the election

Visit the California Secretary of State’s website for more information about how to vote in this fall’s General Election.

This article originally appeared on the Across California Patch