Voter reg. deadlines approach

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election is Oct. 20. Voters can request a vote-by-mail — or absentee — ballot through Oct. 28. 

County elections offices are already beginning to receive completed vote-by-mail ballots that were sent out to registered voters last week.

Nearly 700 vote-by-mail ballots have been received by the Tuolumne County Elections Office thus far. The Calaveras County Elections Office had gotten back about 360 as of Friday. Neither office received mail Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday.

About 74 percent of the roughly 29,500 registered voters in Tuolumne County are signed up to receive vote-by-mail ballots, according to County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Debi Bautista.

An additional 250 ballots were sent out since the initial batch on Oct. 6, Bautista said. Most of those were sent to people who changed addresses since the 2012 election, as well as some who recently registered to receive a vote-by-mail ballot.

Bautista added that between 400 and 500 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned through the mail because the voter no longer lived at the listed address.

“That shows there are people out there who still need to update their (voter) registration,” she said.

To update voter information or check if registration is up-to-date, Tuolumne County voters can call the Elections Office at 533-5570. Calaveras County residents can do the same by calling 754-6376, or check their status online at http://clerk.calaverasgov.us/Elections/ElectionsTools/AmIRegisteredtoVote.aspx.

Voters can sign up to receive a vote-by-mail — or absentee — ballot through Oct. 28.

Election officials in both counties advised voters to return their early ballots no later than Oct. 29. Any ballots received by either county’s elections office after 8 p.m. on Nov. 4 will not be counted.

Bautista said it helps the Elections Office for early voters to return their ballots well before Nov. 4 to ensure their vote is included with the preliminary tally on election night.

“Anything earlier helps us,” she said. “We try to have all the ballots received up until that Monday included in Tuesday’s count.”

It may take slightly longer to tally the votes in the Twain Harte-Long Barn Union School District because it features the only write-in candidate on the county ticket and the ballots must be counted by hand, Bautista noted.

About 5,319 voters are registered in the district, but only about 3,330 have been actively voting in recent years.

Meanwhile, about 63 percent of the nearly 26,800 registered voters in Calaveras County received their ballots early in the mail this year.

Calaveras County Elections Coordinator Rebecca Turner said about 16,800 total ballots have been sent since Oct. 6. That includes those whose address has changed, or people who have recently signed up.

Turner said there hasn’t been much change in the number of people registering to vote, despite the election just weeks away.

“We haven’t had a very high registration rate for this time period,” she said. “It’s very low.”

Calaveras County voters opting to receive ballots in the mail has steadily increased in recent years, Turner said.

She attributed the rise to the convenience and freedom that voting by mail provides.

“There’s not a specific time you have to do it. You can do it on your own time, research the candidates and look up information,” she said. “It’s a lot cheaper than keeping polling places open, so it helps us too.”

To register to vote, sign up to receive an absentee ballot or return a completed ballot, visit or contact:

• Tuolumne County Elections Office, 2 S. Green St., Sonora, second floor in the clerk’s office. Phone: 533-5570. Website: www.tuolumnecounty.ca.gov/elections.

• Calaveras County Elections Office, 891 Mountain Ranch Road, San Andreas, room 209. Phone: 754-6376. Website: www.clerk.calaverasgov.us/Elections.aspx.