Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day, and the General Election happening on November 8 is less than 50 days away.
Ballots will be mailed out starting the second week of October and every registered voter will receive one in the mail.
People can register to vote online at the California Secretary of State's website or in person at a local DMV, public library, post office, or county office.
Election offices for both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties say the turnout for the last election, the June Primary, was pretty low. Santa Barbara County's turnout was around 39% and San Luis Obispo County was just short of 49%.
“Kids are graduating from high school, we have, you know, people planning for trips, so we tend to not see as high of a turnout for June. But we fully anticipate that November there will be a high number of voters coming out,” said Renee Bischoff, Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters for the County of Santa Barbara.
“Our turnout for the gubernatorial general election is usually around 60%. We, of course, would love to have much higher turnout than that, but that's historically about where it is,” said Melissa Lile, Deputy Registrar for the County of San Luis Obispo.
Registered voters can vote by mail or in person at a polling place on Election Day. SLO County expects to have 59 polling places and 18 drop boxes, while Santa Barbara County anticipates 85 polling places and 29 drop boxes.
However, that polling place must be the one you are assigned on your ballot or you will be asked to cast a provisional ballot.
“Which allows us to determine who you are, where you live, which ballot you should be voting on, and to ensure that you haven't voted already,” Lile added.
For more coverage of the upcoming election, click here.
