With less than two weeks until California’s March 5 primary election, voters in Los Angeles County can now begin casting their early votes in person at one of the 119 voting centers that opened Saturday.
The ballot includes a long list of candidates and ballot measures at the state and local level, including party nominations for president and an open U.S. Senate race to determine the top two finishers who will advance to the November election.
In California, county elections offices were required to begin mailing ballots to all registered voters by February 5. Vote centers, which open 10 days before the election, are one of several options for voters to return mail-in ballots or vote in person. until super Tuesday.
Voters can also mail completed ballots or return them to local vote-by-mail drop boxes.
People who want to vote, but missed the voter registration deadline, can fill out a conditional voter registration form at a voting center to cast a vote, which will be counted after election officials confirm the voter’s eligibility. the voters.
The Los Angeles County Recorder/Clerk said voting centers will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until March 4. Polls and polling places will open earlier on Election Day, and polls will close statewide at 8 p.m.
At the urging of then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who now represents California in the U.S. Senate, state lawmakers expanded voting access under a law passed in 2016 called the California Voter Choice Act. The law allowed counties to mail ballots to all registered voters and required voting centers to open 10 days before the election.
The changes were made in response to historically low voter turnout in 2014 and as part of an effort to make it easier for Californians to participate in elections.
As of Thursday, 22.3 million registered voters have received mail-in ballots and more than 1.4 million have been returned, according to the California Secretary of State’s office. The vast majority of returned votes, nearly 1.2 million, were sent by mail.