Voter registration deadline approaching

Worried about missing your chance to vote? County officials say that, as long as you register to vote by Oct. 22, you will have the opportunity to vote in the Nov. 6 election.

If someone is eligible to vote in Los Angeles County, they can register to vote on lavote.net or at the Secretary of State’s website at sos.ca.gov. On lavote.net, voters can go under the “Voting and Elections” tab to input their address and register, find their district or find their polling place.

Voters can also walk into any government agency, like their local library, and pick up paper applications and mail them to the L.A. County registrar’s office, said Mike Sanchez, spokesman for the L.A. County registrar’s office.

“They need to be registered by Oct. 22 so we can send them their materials, and if they want a vote-by-mail ballot we can provide that to them as well,” he said. “As long as it’s in our office by the end of the business day on Oct. 22, you can vote in the upcoming election.”

This year, information on all 11 ballot propositions will be available in the sample ballot booklets the county is mailing out. Short summaries of what a “yes” or “no” vote would do are included in the booklets. If voters have not received their booklet yet, the county is still in the process of sending them out, Sanchez said. In the meantime, the online ballot booklet is available online at lavote.net.

For comprehensive explainers with perspectives from either side, voters can go to local news outlets, such as The Signal, to hear from their local elected officials or local groups in support or opposition.

They can research such measures by going to the website leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, where they can look up a corresponding Senate or Assembly bill number.

The ballots also have statements from the candidates, Sanchez said, and are a good starting point for finding out what each candidate’s mission statement is.

Lavote.com has information on the new vote-by-mail ballots, and weekend early voting for constituents to vote during the two weekends before election day.

Over the phone, constituents can also request a vote-by-mail ballot for any absentee voters, update their mailing address or ask any other questions, Sanchez said.

If constituents run into any issues registering or are confused about their precinct or polling place, they can call 1-800-8152666, which directs the public to a reporting bank.