Top image: The San Mateo County Superior Court building in Redwood City. Photo: mliu92 / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
With a week left before the Nov. 3 statewide general election, San Mateo County’s elections office reports that it had received 68,830 mail ballots and 700 ballots cast at vote centers as of 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. The county has 449,447 registered voters, according to the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and Elections office, and it describes the count as a raw estimate. Together that is roughly 15.5% of registered voters, with most ballots typically arriving in the final days.
Today’s deadline
Tuesday, Oct. 27, is the county’s deadline for voters who want a replacement mail ballot sent to them, so that it arrives by Election Day, according to the county’s election calendar. It is also the last day to request a mail ballot in Spanish, Chinese or Filipino, or a facsimile ballot in several other languages. By law, the county must also publish its list of vote centers by today. Any registered voter in the county can go to any vote center for voter services, including voting in person.
When and where to vote in person
- Eleven-day vote centers are open Saturday, Oct. 24, through Friday, Oct. 30, for at least eight hours a day, with at least one center for every 50,000 registered voters.
- A larger set of four-day vote centers opens Saturday, Oct. 31, and runs through Election Day.
- On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Early voting sites opened Oct. 5 in San Mateo, Redwood City and South San Francisco, the county said.
- Conditional voter registration, which lets eligible residents register and vote on the same day, is available at vote centers through Election Day.
Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by Nov. 10 to count, the county’s calendar says. The county must certify its results by Dec. 3. The full vote-center list and drop-box map are on the county elections page.
What is on the ballot
Besides the statewide races and propositions, San Mateo County voters are deciding a long list of local measures, according to the county’s measure list:
- Countywide: Measure L (extreme weather), Measure AA (affirmation of rights), Measure J (special elections and appointments) and Measure U (reapportionment), plus a regional transit sales tax.
- Schools: Burlingame School District bond (R), Cabrillo Unified parcel tax (Z), Jefferson Union High School District parcel tax (M), Pacifica School District parcel tax (T), San Carlos School District parcel tax (K), San Mateo County Community College District bond (V) and San Mateo-Foster City School District bond (W).
- Cities: Belmont (Y), Brisbane (X), Burlingame hotel tax (D), East Palo Alto bond (O) and term limits (CC), Half Moon Bay (I and Q), Menlo Park (P), Pacifica (BB), Portola Valley (N), Redwood City rent measure (E), San Bruno (S, DD and EE) and San Carlos (G), among others.
Redwood City’s Measure E is the most closely watched local fight. The Chronicle broke it down line by line on Monday.
The long view
A turnout figure of about 15% one week out is a snapshot, not a forecast. Mail ballots can be postmarked as late as Election Day and still count if they arrive by Nov. 10. That means the gap between the county’s 449,447 registered voters and the ballots in hand so far says more about timing than about final turnout. The more useful numbers will come after Election Day, when the county begins posting semi-official results and counts of ballots still to be processed, on the way to certification by Dec. 3.
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