About one in four South Bay voters have already cast ballots. Here is where, when and how to vote before polls close Tuesday

Top image: An official ballot drop box. Mail ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3. Photo: Yngvadottir / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

By Tomas Akinyemi, Local Government Reporter

Turnout in the South Bay is moving ahead of the statewide pace. With polls closing at 8 p.m. Tuesday, here is where returns stand and how to vote.

Ballots returned so far

California Secretary of State figures through Friday, Oct. 30, the latest available, show:

• Santa Clara County: 261,696 ballots returned, 24.1% of 1,087,119 registered voters. That includes 255,469 mail ballots and 6,227 in-person votes.
• San Mateo County: 122,483 ballots, 27.0% of 452,874 registered voters.
• San Francisco: 115,675 ballots, 21.3%.
• Alameda County: 235,137 ballots, 23.7%.
• Statewide: 5,545,910 ballots, 23.6%.

San Mateo County’s own count, as of 5 p.m. Oct. 29, showed 116,235 mail ballots received and 2,104 votes at vote centers out of 449,447 registered voters, according to the county’s elections office. County and state figures use different cutoffs and registration counts, so they will not match exactly. The Chronicle’s one-week-out report had about 69,500 San Mateo ballots returned at that point.

Santa Clara County: 110 vote centers

Santa Clara County has 110 vote centers. Twenty-three opened Oct. 24, and 87 more opened Saturday, Oct. 31, according to the Registrar of Voters. They are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Monday, Nov. 2, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. The registrar is urging voters to cast ballots early to avoid lines on Tuesday.

San Mateo County: 46 now, 50 on Election Day

San Mateo County has 46 vote centers open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Fifty will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, and all 50 will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the county says. The elections office is at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo and can be reached at (650) 312-5222.

Deadlines and rules

• Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3 and arrive within seven days. They can also be dropped at any official drop box or vote center by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
• Voters who missed the registration deadline can still register and vote the same day at a vote center (same-day registration).
• Anyone in line at 8 p.m. on Election Day can still vote.

More details are in our early-voting guide. Several federal court rulings this week have dealt with the Justice Department’s activity around California’s election. None of them changes how or where to vote.