Thousands of Fresno County voters have already returned ballots. Here’s the latest
The Fresno County Registrar of Voters Office has already counted 71,792 ballot envelopes in what has been a record year for early voting in the state.
Fresno’s all-mail ballot system had ballots in the hands of mail carriers last week and the Fresno County Registrar of Voters started counting the returns on Oct. 7.
Almost 15% of ballots have already been returned through Thursday morning. Nineteen days from the Nov. 3 election, the office has counted 71,792 ballot envelopes returned through the mail and collected from ballot boxes scattered around town.
The actual votes on the ballots have not yet been counted.
“I’m not surprised that voters are participating in such large numbers in the democratic process. I believe voters are engaged in this election,” Registrar Brandi Orth said on Wednesday.
“I believe voters are already becoming accustomed to receiving their ballot in the mail,” she said.
There are 481,837 registered voters in Fresno County, according to the latest count, almost 45,000 more than in 2016. It’s also about 10,000 more than during the March primary.
The move to the California Voter’s Choice Act — when all voters get a ballot by mail — has opened the opportunity to vote early for more people, Orth said.
Twenty days out from the 2016 presidential election, her office had counted 19,779.
The returns are similar around the state. There were more than 1.7 million returns through Wednesday, according to Political Data Inc., a voter information tracker. The equivalent time before the election in 2016 saw a total of 185,000.
“We have never seen anything like this in the first week of voting,” the firm tweeted.
The percentage of registered Democrats who returned ballots (10%) slightly outpaces the Republican returns (7%), according to numbers from Political Data. About 20 million ballots remain unaccounted for.
Where to vote
“We are preparing a mailing which will be sent to each household in Fresno County containing a registered voter,” Orth said. “It will once again include a list of official drop boxes and a security alert that voters are to utilize only official drop boxes.”
Precinct voting is a thing of the past. Registered voters can mark the ballot they received by mail and send them right back without postage.
The ballots can also be taken to any of 66 county drop boxes. Fifty-three election centers will open Oct. 31 through Election Day, Nov. 3, for in-person voting. The 2221 Kern St. Fresno County Registrar’s of Voters Office is open now on weekdays for in-person voting, too.
For a full list of drop boxes and voting centers, go to fresnovote.com. To report problems with a ballot or for any other troubleshooting, call the registrar’s office at 559-600-8683.
Which drop box?
The 66 new ballot boxes are set up and maintained by the registrar’s office. At the same time, unofficial boxes went up statewide in violation of state law, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. California Republican leaders said Wednesday that the state is wrong and planned to continue using the unofficial boxes.
In Fresno County, local GOP leaders said Monday that they were removing the unauthorized ballot drop boxes, and on Tuesday the District Attorney’s Office said it will investigate the placement of the unauthorized ballot boxes and will prosecute anyone found to have committed criminal violations of the elections code.
The official boxes are marked with the Fresno County seal and big red letters that say “OFFICIAL BALLOT DROP BOX.” The same thing is repeated in Spanish in blue letters.
“These drop boxes comply with state regulations and are serviced by identifiable election officials in an official vehicle,” Orth said. “Ballot envelopes are brought directly to the elections department processing center the same day.”
Orth said the boxes are not required to be emptied daily but she has instructed her staff to do so.
A good tip for avoiding hangups is to remember to sign the ballot before dropping in the box, Orth said. Voting early also gives her office a chance to correct any issues that come up related to a signature.
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 11:38 AM.
