Early primary voting in final days

Here's what to know and do if you haven't cast your ballot yet with election day almost here

If you haven't voted yet, don't panic. You still have time — though not a lot.

About two days, in fact.

That's right, while it may feel like you only just received your vote-by-mail ballot, the 2024 statewide primary election is nearly over. Election day is Tuesday.

And mail-in ballots actually went out during the first week of February.

But look, we get it. You didn't mean to be a ballot-box procrastinator. You've had a lot going on: Work. School. Valentine's Day. The

Super Bowl. Plus, there are dozens of candidates to sift through for any given ballot and those campaign robo-calls are exhausting.

So you put your ballot on the coffee table and told yourself you'd get to it when you could.

Suddenly, however, the primary election is in the eleventh hour, and you're scrambling to figure out how to vote.

Again, we get it. And we're here to help.

Here's a quick primer on everything you need to know about the statewide primary before election day arrives.

HOW TO VOTE >> Let's start simple by telling you how to vote.

There are two broad categories of voting in Los Angeles County: via mail or the old-fashioned way, at an in-person voting machine.

Let's start with the former. As long as you were registered to vote by Feb. 20, you should have received a vote-by-mail ballot from the county registrar's office. This has become an increasingly popular way to vote, since it's easy and doesn't require you to stand in a queue. During the 2020 primary, for example, about 86% of votes in L.A. County came via mail.

The county registrar's office had received 424,577 mail-in ballots as of Thursday, according to the California secretary of state's office.

Now, you can submit your mail-in ballot in one of three ways: As the name suggests, you can drop it in a mailbox or bring it to the post office. You can place it in one of the more than 400 drop boxes scattered across the county. Or you can deliver it to one of the 644 regional vote centers. To find a drop box or vote center, go to lavote.gov.

But there are some key deadlines to know. If you choose the drop box or vote center method, you must do so before polls close on election day. That's 8 p.m. Tuesday. If you choose to mail your ballot, it must be postmarked by election day.

If you decide to mail it in, don't worry about it not arriving in time. As long as your ballot is postmarked by Tuesday, it has seven days to get to the registrar's office. And the United States Postal Service prioritizes election-related mail, registrar spokesperson Michael Sanchez said in early February.

Now, for those who want to vote in person or have no choice — more on that in a moment — you can do so at any of those vote centers.

“Yes, gone are the days of showing up at a specific local polling place to cast your ballot. Now, you can go to whichever county vote center is most convenient for you, whether it's close to your home or your job or anywhere else you happen to be.”

As of this weekend, all of the vote centers are officially open. There had been 11,363ballots cast at vote centers as of Thursday, according to the secretary of state's office.

From now until election day, the vote centers will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. On election day, vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. But if you're still in line after 8 p.m. Tuesday, you will still be allowed to vote.

Don't worry if you registered to vote late or even if you haven't done so yet.

While Feb. 20 was the deadline to register and receive a mail-in ballot, you can still sign up to vote through election day. You'll just have to go in-person. Oh, and your ballot may be conditional, especially if you do same-day registration at a vote center on Tuesday.

That's nothing to fret about, though. All a conditional ballot means is that the county registrar's office must verify you are who you say you are, live where you say you live and are otherwise eligible to vote in the election.

OK, so now that you know how to vote, let's talk a bit about the election itself.

Presidential primaries.

Top-two primaries. Fiftypercent-plus-one primaries. Judgeships and propositions. It can all be a bit overwhelming, we know.

In Los Angeles County alone, there are 17 congressional, five state Senate and 24Assembly races. Three seats on the county's Board of Supervisors are up for grabs, as well as the district attorney's race and nearly 170Superior Court judgeships — and more local city and school board races than we can tally here.

There's one state proposition as well, and several cities also have local measures on the ballot.

Statewide, people will also have the opportunity to vote for an open U.S. Senate seat — twice.

In California, ballots are organized to place local races at the top and federal races at the bottom. So if you're the type of voter who only fills out the presidential and congressional portions of the ballot, you'll have a lot of other races to sift through. That's by design.

Of course, not everyone's ballot will look the same. What you see on your ballot will depend on both where you live and your political party.

Your sample ballot will be the simplest way to see which presidential primary (Democratic, Republican, etc.), and congressional, state legislative and local races you will vote on. But you can also go to lavote .gov to find out that information.

And don't forget to check out our previews of key races online.

Speaking of key races, let's take a look at some of those now.

We'll start with the highest-profile primaries. That's right, the Republican and Democratic primaries.

Though, to be frank, these might be the least dramatic ones.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have been sparring for months. And their rematch is essentially already on the books for Nov. 5. But the Democratic and Republican conventions won't take place until summer, so until then, there's still cursory intrigue over the nominees.

Biden does, in fact, have seven challengers on California's primary ballot. The best-known candidate, besides the president himself, is author Marianne Williamson. You may remember Williamson from her unsuccessful bid for the White House during the 2020 Democratic primary. She ultimately dropped out and endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Quick history lesson: It's been 140 years since a sitting president has failed to receive his party's nomination, and it's only happened five times in history. All of those occurred in the 19th

century, ranging from the antebellum to Reconstruction eras, and four of those presidents ascended to the Oval Office after their predecessors had died. The lone exception was our 14th president, Democrat Franklin Pierce — we all remember Franklin Pierce, right? — who failed to secure his party's nomination in 1856 after nabbing it four years earlier.

The more intriguing contest, then, is for the Republican nomination — though barely. Trump, who was ousted from office in 2020, has so far steamrolled his GOP competitors. In California, eight others are on the ballot. But that's a tad misleading. Most of Trump's challengers on the ballot have either already dropped out and endorsed him — entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example — or haven't captured much national attention.

The exception is former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who could use a victory after some heavy defeats to Trump elsewhere, including in Iowa and her native South Carolina.

Another history lesson: Only once in United States history has a president been elected to two nonconsecutive terms. That would be Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th chief executive.

Let's move across town, from the White House to the upper chamber of Congress.

The race for U.S. Senate, as mentioned previously, is interesting — and a little confusing. That's because you'll vote twice for the same seat. The reason for this is somber: When Sen. Diane Feinstein, 90, died in September, she left that seat open for the first time since 1992. That was so long ago, Disney's “Aladdin” was captivating filmgoers, Magic Johnson was still donning the purple and gold, and the average price of gas was less than a buck a gallon.

Feinstein's death triggered a special election to finish the remainder of her term. But that term ends this year, meaning we also need to elect someone to serve a full six years beginning in 2025. Hence the two races.

Seven candidates are running to finish Feinstein's current term, and 27 are vying for the full term. The seven running in the former race are also running for the latter.

Still, there are only four clear candidates for both: Reps. Rep. Adam Schiff, DBurbank, Katie Porter, DIrvine, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Dodgers legend Steve Garvey, a Republican. Schiff has led the polls for months, but the latest poll, released Friday morning by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, placed the veteran congressman in a virtual tie with Garvey, at

25% and 27% support, respectively.

Because these are partisan races, no candidate can win outright. Instead, the top-two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to the general election.

On the off chance different candidates win the short- and full-term races, the former would only hold office for about a month.

OTHER PARTISAN RACES >>

That was fun, wasn't it? So many interesting tidbits about the presidential and Senate primaries.

No? It wasn't fun? Huh, OK. Well, then, let's take a quick tour of other key partisan races.

Remember, no one can win these races outright. Instead, candidates are jockeying to be in the top two and advance to November.

Among the 17 congressional races in Los Angeles County, the most compelling are probably Districts 27 and 31.

District 27, covering the Antelope Valley, could prove pivotal in deciding which party controls the House of Representatives, with Republican incumbent Mike Garcia facing a Democratic challenger with deep pockets. That opponent is George Whitesides, a former NASA chief of staff and Virgin Galactic CEO. Whitesides received California Sen. Alex Padilla's endorsement.

There's a second Democrat in this race: Steve Hill. Hill is a former prison guard, veteran and self-professed satanist.

While this district has historically voted red, it has turned blue in recent years as more families — particularly Black and Latino families — have moved to the region because of cheaper housing.

Voters in District 31, meanwhile, are facing something they haven't dealt with in a while: an open seat. With 13-term Rep. Grace Napolitano retiring, this district, which covers core San Gabriel Valley cities, has a competitive race on its hands.

State Sens. Susan Rubio and Bob Archuleta, and former Rep. Gil Cisneros, all Democrats, are the big names among the 10 total candidates. The candidates have said they are ready to take on the work Napolitano has established within the district and in Congress.

But Napolitano's successor will certainly feel the pressure to live up to her legacy.

To read about the other congressional races, as well as those for state Senate and Assembly, go to this publication's website.

We're sorry for filibustering. We're feeling a bit like Jimmy Stewart from the climax of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” But we're almost

done.

We just have to discuss some key countywide races. These races are, ostensibly, nonpartisan — and candidates can win outright. If a candidate gets a majority of votes — at least 50% plus one — they will win without having to duke it out in November.

District Attorney George Gascón has had an interesting four years since becoming L.A. County's chief prosecutor. Elements of his reform agenda have provoked a strong backlash from staffers within his office, while rising rates of smash-and-grab robberies and property crime has dampened his appeal with some voters.

A recent poll found that just 26% of voters hold a favorable view of Gascón.

But his 11 challengers have also struggled to gain traction as they try to oust him. Those challengers include five deputy district attorneys, three current or former judges, an assistant U.S. attorney, a former assistant U.S. attorney general and a defense attorney.

Gascón's two biggest threats are likely Nathan Hochman, a former assistant U.S. attorney general who has been the race's biggest spender, having doled out nearly $1 million from Jan. 21 to Feb. 17 alone; and Jonathan Hatami, who had the second-most support — 8%, compared with Gascón's 15% — in a poll from earlier this year.

Hochman and Hatami are among the nine challengers who have said they would repeal all of Gascón's executive directive, including bans on the death penalty, trying juveniles as adults, many sentencing enhancements and cash bail.

Besides the DA's race, there are also elections for three county supervisorial districts.

In District2, which includes a swath of the South Bay's coastal communities, Supervisor Holly Mitchell faces three challengers: educator and entrepreneur Daphne Bradford, nonprofit leader Clint Carlton and Katrina Williams, who runs the nonprofit service provider Changing the Faces of Homelessness.

In District 4, which runs from Long Beach and San Pedro up through northeast L.A. County, Supervisor Janice Hahn is running for reelection against former county Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank.

In District 5, which sweeps from Antelope Valley through the foothill communities of the San Gabriel Valley, Supervisor Kathryn Barger is facing four candidates: Burbank Councilmember Konstantine Anthony; Acton resident Perry Goldberg, who runs the nonprofit E pluribus University; termed-out Assemblymember Chris Holden; and Little Rock resident Marlon Marroquin,