How to Vote in California's Midterm Elections this November

With all the demands of life and work, voting may not be everyone's priority. That's especially true for those who haven't voted before because they have to invest extra time learning how to do it.

"For a first-time voter and people that want to get involved, you just don't know how to do things," said Sim Bilal, a South L.A. resident and youth climate activist.

"You go online and you try to Google things and the first thing you see are so many ads. You don't know where to start."

And yet, it's often those who are most impacted by changes in policies on issues such as housing, healthcare and climate change who have the least time to be informed about them and to hit the polls.

Bilal encourages first-time voters to start early to understand the process — and, most importantly, to ensure they make it to the polls or the ballot box.

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"The history of voting is very racist," Bilal said. "There are things in our community that prevent us from voting in the first place, and it does not make sense nowadays [for] communities to not go out to vote when they have been notoriously blocked from it."

Over 400 bills have been introduced in recent years that effectively suppress voters — and these moves disproportionately impact students, the elderly, low-income communities, people of color, students and people with disabilities, according to the ACLU.

Some states have cut early voting, purged voter rolls, created stricter voter ID rules and limited the number and location of polling places — leading to voter suppression, especially among low-income communities.

The process for first-time voters — or registered voters who are new to California or who haven’t voted recently — can be broken down into four main steps. Here's what you need to know to make sure you have a voice in the upcoming election.

1. Register to Vote

To register to vote, you must fill out a voter registration application on the California Secretary of State website or via your local county's Registrar of Voters:

• Los Angeles County
• Riverside County
• Imperial County (also in person and by phone)
• Ventura County (also in person and by phone)
• Santa Barbara County (also in person, by phone and by mail)
• Kern County (also by mail)

You'll need to provide, among other things, your legal name, identification, address where you reside in California and political party preference. You must be a citizen of the United States, and you must not be currently serving time for a felony conviction.

The voter registration deadline is usually about two weeks before the election. For the Nov. 8 election, it is Monday, October 24.

Note: You can pre-register to vote at 16 or 17 years old and automatically be registered to vote when you turn 18 years old.

If you miss the deadline to register to vote, or you need to update your voter registration information, you can register at an early voting center or a polling location in your district as part of the Same-Day Voter Registration program offered by the California Secretary of State.

2. Learn What and Who is on the Ballot

While doing research for a ballot initiative, like the California propositions, find out what the various measures proposed would do, who proposed them, who is for and against them and who benefits. Use credible information sources such as a trusted news source and your local city or county website.

The state also provides an official voter information guide listing your rights as a voter, candidates' statements and information about statewide propositions, including a summary of each, the pros and cons and what voting "yes" or "no" means.

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Information on who is contributing the most money for and against various measures and candidates can be found on the Secretary of State's campaign fundraising reporting website.

There's something else you can do, too, according to Brennie Dale, an alumna of Human Rights Watch's Student Task Force.

"When going through ballot measures, talk to others to shape your opinion and others'," she said. "Voting is not easy … Don't be intimidated by older voters and politicians."

3. Find Your Polling Place or Vote by Mail

If you're interested in voting in person, you're no longer limited to just one day for "Election Day" (which this year is November 8).

In Voter's Choice Act (VCA) counties, certain vote centers open for early in-person voting on October 29. In these counties, vote centers have replaced polling places — which means you can cast your ballot at your vote center of choice (near your place of work, for example) rather than the polling place you've been designated, based on your residential district. (More vote centers open for early in-person voting in VCA counties only on November 4 and 5.)

Polling places and vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. — but as long as you're in line by the time the polls close, you will be allowed to cast your vote.

If you decide to vote by mail in the upcoming November election, a ballot should have been sent to your home before or on Oct. 8.

You do not have to request a ballot to be sent to you. All Californians who are registered to vote should automatically receive a ballot by mail. However, if you didn't receive your ballot, or you lost it or it somehow got destroyed, you may request a replacement by filling out a form and submitting it to your local county elections office.

You have a few options for returning the ballot:

• Mail it back, making sure it's postmarked on or before the election day, Nov. 8, and received by your county elections office no later than seven days after election day, or Nov. 15.
• Drop it off in one of the county's ballot boxes, which are available 29 days before the election and on election day, until 8 p.m. Drop boxes are "under heavy safeguards to protect ballots," according to the state. The boxes are made of metal bolted to the ground with security features that include tamper-evident seals. They’re often placed in areas with 24-hour video surveillance. To find the location of your nearest ballot drop-off box, visit the Early Voting and Vote-by-Mail Ballot Drop-Off Locations search engine on the California Secretary of State website.
• If you're not able to return the ballot yourself, you can authorize someone else to return the ballot for you — as long as they don't get paid on a per ballot basis. For your vote to count if you choose this path, you must sign the authorization section on the ballot.
• You can drop it off at a polling place in your district between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

When ballots are returned, election officials say they verify the voter's identity by checking for a match on the signature on the outside of the envelope. If it does not match the signature on file with the voter’s registration, they will not open the envelope containing the ballot, and they will not count the vote until they can confirm the voter’s identification.

4. Track Your Vote

If you vote by mail, you can track the status of your ballot by signing up on the California Secretary of State's "Where's My Ballot?" webpage.

Once you sign up, you'll receive emails, texts or voicemails saying:

• The date that the ballot is expected to be delivered to the voter
• When the ballot has been delivered
• If the voter's ballot is returned as undeliverable to county elections official by the USPS
• Whether the voter's completed ballot has been accepted when the completed ballot is received by the county or a reason why the ballot could not be accepted and instructions of steps the voter can take in order to have the ballot accepted
• The deadline for the voter to return the ballot if the county has not received a voter's completed ballot by specified dates.

And if you still have any questions about any of the above, you can contact your local county elections office for more information or call the toll-free voter hotline.