County gears up for mailin voting
North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire is working with officials in his district to prepare the state for the potential for an all mail-in election in November 2020, a potential first for the state.
But the move is not easy. There are currently bills moving forward in the Assembly and the Senate to address the issue.
Humboldt County, before efforts to move to vote-by-mail, is already sending mail-in ballots to around two-thirds of the county’s registered voters, a number McGuire says is the average for the North Coast. (Mendocino County is around 80% mail-in ballots, the highest rate of any North Coast County, McGuire said.)
“We’ll notify all of the voters in the county that they will be receiving a ballot in the mail,” said Humboldt County Registrar of Voters Kelly Sanders, noting that there will be the need for some voter education ahead of the November 2020 presidential election.
Around 60% of the county’s more than 79,000 voters voted in March. More voters are expected to vote in November, Sanders said, noting higher numbers of voters are historically seen in presidential elections.
In recent weeks, President Trump has expressed frustration with the move to mail-in voting, a move he’s said is fraught with fraud.
“California has some the toughest vote-by-mails laws in America,” McGuire told the TimesStandard on Tuesday afternoon, noting both the president and his advisors and press secretary have previously voted by mail repeatedly. “The tweets that President (Donald) Trump has sent out are lies. It’s compete partisan crap and the president knows it.”
Sanders said that there are protocols implemented that ensure a vote is from a registered voter, including verifying the signature on the outside of the envelope. If there are any questions about authenticity, those votes are set aside and verified independently, Sanders added.
“For every vote by mail, we are required to check the voter’s signature on the envelope with the
signature on file,” Sanders said. “If we see any discrepancy, we are going to question that.”
She added that ahead of the March 3 primary, the election office acquired a new piece of equipment that speeds up the vote tallying process. The machine is able to scan 1,800 envelopes per hour and verify whether signatures match those on file, a more secure process than when election workers verified signatures using a more manual method.
“It saves us a lot of time,” Sanders said.
McGuire noted there are two companion pieces of legislation working through the Legislature that will address aiding counties’ move to mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(The legislation) will be focused on policy and on finance impacts to counties,” he said. “That is what is being discussed now. “
While the counties are moving to vote by mail, it will not be the only option. There will be voting centers across the county that can accommodate in person voting, but there will be fewer than in past elections as part of a consolidation process. Sanders said they will be available, but people who received voteby-mail ballots will be asked to surrender those ahead of filing an in-person ballot — another measure intended to reduce the possibility of voter fraud.