A record number of people have registered to vote in California, and that number is likely to keep growing as we approach the Nov. 3 election.
For the first time, every registered voter in the state will get a ballot automatically sent to them in the mail and that is causing some confusion for people who prefer to vote in person.
Some counties have consolidated their polling places this year under the Voters Choice Act, which means there are fewer locations to go to but voters will have much more flexibility.
In Alameda, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties, voters will be able to visit any of the voting centers in their county, instead of having to go to an assigned polling place as in previous elections. And while there will be fewer places to go and vote in person, all will open early on Oct. 31.
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Contra Costa, San Francisco and Solano counties will have neighborhood polling places as usual.
The state’s voter handbook also advises people to bring their vote-by-mail ballot with them when they vote and surrender them to a poll worker so they can make sure you do not vote twice.
But Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis says that will not be necessary thanks to new electronic systems that track whether or not someone has voted in real time.
"When you go in, the electronic poll book will tell us who you are and whether you’ve voted or not,” he explained. “So in this case for Nov. 3, you don’t have to surrender your ballot because we’ll know whether you voted or not because everything’s tied together through the central database instead of a printed roster."
The data is updated in real time, so if someone were to try to vote at two different voting centers, the poll workers would be able to see that that person has already voted. If someone tries to vote in person and submit their vote by mail ballot afterwards, it will be scanned when it arrives at the county registrar and the database will recognize that the person has already voted.
Many counties are also expanding the number of designated ballot drop off boxes for those vote by mail ballots. Alameda County had 28 in the last election, and has more than doubled that this year to 66.
All Bay Area counties have already begun offering early voting at one central location and the deadline to register to vote in California is Oct. 19.