Voting is already underway in California for the midterm elections — but for those who are not registered to vote, there is still time.
The deadline to register to vote in the general election is Monday, Oct. 19.
You can do so online at registertovote.ca.gov or at a county elections office, DMV field office or many post offices, libraries and government offices. If you choose to fill out a paper voter registration application, it must be completed and hand-delivered or postmarked to your county elections office at least 15 days before Election Day.
You must be a U.S. citizen and California resident and at least 18 years old as of Election Day, Nov. 3.
You will need your California driver’s license or identification card, date of birth and last four digits of your Social Security number to register. That information will be checked with DMV records, and if found — and you authorize it — your signature on file with the DMV will be added to your voter registration application.
If your records aren’t found, you will need to print and sign a paper application and mail it. And if you do not have a California ID or a Social Security number, you will be assigned a unique identifier with your voter registration, per the Califoria secretary of state.
In both cases, your county elections official will need to verify your voter registration application and will let you know whether your application is approved or if more information is needed, according to the California secretary of state.
And if you pre-registered to vote at 16 or 17 years old, you will be automatically registered to vote on your 18th birthday.
Those who are serving a state or federal prison term for a felony conviction or who have been found mentally incompetent to vote by a court cannot register to vote.
Unsure if you’re already registered to vote?
Head over to voterstatus.sos.ca.gov, where you’ll input your first and last name, as well as your date of birth, driver’s license or state ID number and Social Security number.
The website will let you know if you are registered to vote. But it will also show you where you’re registered to vote, help you find your polling place, show your political party preference and language preference for election materials, and let you know the status of your vote-by-mail or provisional ballot.
If you wish to change your political party, you will need to re-register to vote, according to the secretary of state’s office.
If you miss the Oct. 19 deadline, you can still participate in the election.
California has what’s called “conditional voter registration.” Eligible citizens are able to register or re-register to vote at your county elections office, polling place or vote centers and cast a ballot. Those ballots won’t be processed and counted, however, until the county elections office has verified the voter’s registration application.
For more information, contact your county elections office or check out registertovote.ca.gov.
Both Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Attorney General Rob Bonta urged those who wish to vote by mail to do so by Oct. 27, a week before Election Day, to make sure their ballot gets counted.
This is to ensure not only that ballots are postmarked by Election Day, as required by law, but to allow enough time for ballots to be delivered to county election offices. In California, local election offices will accept ballots up to seven days after Election Day. Ballots that arrive later won’t be counted.
During the June primary election, 148,241 mail ballots were rejected, with nearly two-thirds of the rejections due to these missed deadlines, according to the attorney general’s office.
“Recent changes in U.S. Postal Service delivery timelines mean that if you wait until Election Day to mail your ballot, it could arrive too late,” Bonta said at a news conference last week.
Voters who vote by mail closer to Nov. 3 — and especially on Election Day itself — are encouraged to go inside a post office to request that an employee postmark their ballot then and there. Or better yet, Bonta said, voters may deposit their marked ballot in a ballot drop box or at an in-person vote center.