Happy Election Day!
If you’re one of the millions of eligible voters who haven’t cast a ballot, or if you’d like to register to vote and cast a conditional ballot (which would be counted after your voter registration is verified), there’s still time — but the clock is ticking.
Vote centers are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, the last day to cast ballots in California’s primary election, where voters will decide which two candidates for governor, in addition to a slew of other statewide and local races, will advance to the November runoff election.
If you’re in line at a vote center before the clock strikes 8 p.m., stay put — you’ll still be allowed to vote. Only people who arrive after 8 p.m. will be turned away.
You can also drop off your mail-in ballot at a drop box, but similar to the vote centers, those boxes will close at 8 p.m.
To check where any of the nearly 650 vote centers or 400-plus drop boxes in Los Angeles County are near you, go to locator.lavote.gov. Links to toggle between the maps for vote centers and drop boxes are at the bottom of the page.
In addition to those two voting options, you can still mail in your ballot, but it’s highly advised that you walk into a postal office and request that an employee postmark your ballot then and there. This is to ensure your ballot is postmarked by Election Day for it to count. If you simply drop it off in a mailbox, you run the risk of it not being postmarked on Tuesday since some postal offices may not get to it the same day.
The California secretary of state’s office reports that as of Sunday, about 3.87 million of the 23.3 million registered voters in the state had cast their votes.
Locally, just over 605,000 of the more than 5.9 million registered voters in Los Angeles County – roughly 10% – had their returned ballots accepted.
What’s on the ballot?
To learn about the candidates or any measures on your ballot, head over to our online voter guide for more information. ”]
The major contest at the top of the ballot, of course, is the race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California’s “jungle primary” election system means that in most cases, including the gubernatorial contest, the top two vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to the general election in the fall.
In recent days, the race for governor has tightened, with polls showing Democrat Xavier Becerra leading the crowded field and Democrat Tom Steyer and Republican Steve Hilton jockeying for the No. 2 spot.
A number of other statewide races are on the ballot, including ones for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, controller, treasurer, attorney general, insurance commissioner and superintendent of public instruction.
Los Angeles County voters can also decide who they wish to represent them on the state Board of Equalization, in Congress and in the state Legislature.
Another major race in L.A. County that has made national headlines is the Los Angeles mayoral race, where Mayor Karen Bass is in a tight contest with City Councilmember Nithya Raman and former reality television star Spencer Pratt.
Also on the ballot are two county Board of Supervisors races, as well as the race for county sheriff and county assessor, nearly a dozen judicial races plus local measures, including Measure ER, a proposed half-cent sales tax to pay for healthcare services in L.A. County.
For information about voting, contact the L.A. County registrar’s office at lavote.gov.