Contact: Mark Church, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Alternate: David Tom, Interim Elections Division Manager
(Redwood City, CA) San Mateo County has received the County’s first voted ballots for the November 8, 2016 Election.
Yesterday, San Mateo County sent e-mails to over two thousand requesting voters covered by The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) including a link to their online ballot, which can be printed and returned by mail or fax. Only hours later, the first completed ballots began to arrive via fax.
“We’re very pleased to be able to provide a fast, straightforward, and secure voting process for our overseas voters,” said Mark Church, San Mateo County’s Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder. “Our goal is to ensure that every registered San Mateo County voter who wants to vote can do so, even if they’re thousands of miles from the County.”
The UOCAVA statute applies to U.S. citizens who are active members of the Uniformed Services, the Merchant Marine, and the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, their eligible family members and U.S. citizens residing outside the United States. UOCAVA voters can mail their voted ballot in the postage paid envelope postmarked by November 8, 2016 and it will be counted if it is received by November 14. Otherwise, they may choose to return their ballots by fax up to 8 p.m. on November 8.
In addition to UOCAVA voters, ballots for other voters signed up to vote by mail will be sent out on October 11, reaching voters shortly afterwards. One of seventy-six different ‘styles’ of ballots will reach each San Mateo County voter, depending on his or her address within the County’s 35 jurisdictions.
In total, 97 candidates will appear across these ballots – 11 Federal candidates (including 5 presidential candidates), 10 state candidates, and 76 local candidates. They will be competing for 4 Federal offices, 5 state offices, and 25 local offices. There will also be 17 state measures and 15 local measures. As of today, over 374,000 San Mateo County citizens are registered to vote in November, and registration will remain open until October 24.
For more information about the November 8, 2016 Presidential General Election, call the Registration & Elections Division at 650.312.5222, visit www.shapethefuture.org or follow @smcvote on Twitter.
The press release is displayed in its original format. San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Elections website now resides at www.smcacre.org