Don't be Rejected

Ballots in envelopes with no signature are automatically rejected. It happens hundreds of times in every election.

SIGN IT!

SIGN IT RIGHT!

Look at the back of the envelope (where you will seal it).

Be sure to:

• find the spot where it asks for your signature
• Using only blue or black ink:
• Sign it - with your name, with the wording that appears printed on the envelope sent to you
• Write in the address at which you are registered to vote (should be the same as your driver's license)
• Date it - that's the date you are signing

Black or Blue. It says so right in the instructions on the ballot. Believe them, it matters.

Ink Pen, not markers or highlighters.

Fill in the entire oval.

No X’s or √'s

Oh, and NO red ink.  

Don’t lose your vote over the wrong pen! 

BTW, if you make a mistake, you can get a new ballot. Anytime on or before 1 week before election day, go online and request a replacement ballot - Here's Help on How

You do not have to MAIL your mail-in ballot!

There are official Ballot Drop Off boxes are all over Santa Clara County.

You can drop your ballot off in any of them.

Find them HERE 24 hours a day starting a month before election day. 

Ballot Drop Off Boxes are open 24/7.

They will be emptied for the last time at 8:00 pm on ELECTION DAY, the same time the polls close.

Any ballot dropped in after that will not be counted.

VOTE EARLY!  DROP OFF YOUR BALLOT EARLY!

Your signature on the envelope will be checked against the one in your Registration File.

It's got to be close.

Two things to check:

1. What is your Official Name: Your name is pre-printed on the return envelope, just below where they ask you to sign.  Check it. 

• Sign to match what's on the envelope, even if it's not your usual signature!
• That is your official signature in the voter roster. It’s probably the name you signed when you registered or got your drivers license.
• If it says “Robert,” you should not sign as “Bob.” If it shows your middle initial, use it in your signature.

.2. What is your Official Signature: If you're not sure what it looks like, look at your driver’s license or state ID. For most people that's what's on file, so make sure your ballot envelope signature looks close to that signature. Make sure your signature matches!

Sounds dumb, but envelope mistakes are among the most common reasons for rejected ballots!

First - Use Only the special return envelope that came with your ballot.

No other envelope will be accepted.

 Now, if you live alone, and you've used the envelope provided, you can go on to the next way to avoid rejection . . .

BUT, if there's more than one voter in your home, everyone needs to know this:

Match the Ballot Code to the Envelope Code

Every mail-in ballot comes with a return envelope that has a code number on it that must match the number on ALL the matching ballot sheets.

Sometimes members of the same household accidentally mix up their election materials and return their ballot sheets in another household member’s envelope. That invalidates your ballot!

Double check to make sure the code number on EVERY ONE of your ballot sheets matches the code number on your return envelope.

Sign the envelope before you send it

Ballots in envelopes with no signature are automatically rejected. It happens hundreds of times in every election.

Look at the back of the envelope (where you will seal it). Be sure to:

• find the spot where it asks for your signature, then
• Using only blue or black ink:

1. Sign it
2. Write in the address at which you are registered to vote
3. Date it - that's the date on which you are signing

Using the US Mail to send your ballot is convenient. You can be anywhere in the country (or even the world) and send your ballot by mail.

But you need to send it early enough.

If you can't mail it at least a full week or more before Election Day, your best bet is to use a Ballot Drop Off Box or turn your envelope in at a Vote Center.

Why so far in advance?

A mailed-in ballot has to be postmarked by 8:00pm on Election Day, and received by the Registrar of Voters within a week after Election Day.

Postmarks are not instant. 

They do not happen automatically when the envelope goes into the mailbox.

The postmark is not necessarily applied at the Post Office in the same ZIP code as where the ballot is mailed. 

When mail is collected from postal boxes, it's usually:

●     Grouped, put on a truck and

●    Taken to a Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), where the postmark is applied. That may not happen the same night as the pickup, or even within several days, depending on circumstances.

Here’s a very common story:

 It was Friday, November 1^st. Election day was Tuesday, November 5^th.

 Gina had filled out her ballot and properly put it in the envelope. The posted pickup time at Gina’s local mailbox is 3:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

 Gina mailed her ballot at her local mailbox on Friday, November 1^st at 3:15 pm, four days before Election Tuesday. Sadly, she didn’t realize that her very-efficient postal carrier had already picked up the mail - promptly at 3:00 pm - and the mail is not picked up from that box on weekends.

 The following Monday Gina’s ballot was picked up promptly at 3:00 pm and taken to the local post office, where it was bagged and put on a truck to be taken overnight to the Postal Service Central Processing & Distribution Center (P&DC), because postmarks and sorting are generally not done at local post-offices anymore.

At the P&DC, sometime on Tuesday, Gina’s ballot envelope went through the machines that sort and postmark the mail. If anything went wrong during postal processing, her envelope might not have gotten postmarked until after the 8:00 pm on Tuesday, the election day deadline.  It was then bagged and loaded onto a truck for final delivery to the County Registrar of Voters (ROV).

Finally, on Wednesday morning, Gina’s ballot arrived at the ROV. As long as a mail-in ballot is delivered by the end of election week, that’s OK in California. But it still needs to have the right postmark.

The envelope was inspected for proper signature, and for a postmark before 8:00 pm on Tuesday, 11/5. If there were any problems in handling at the P&DC, Gina’s ballot’s postmark might be late - and her ballot, which she mailed on Friday afternoon, could not be counted.

What do you think happened? Did Gina’s vote get counted?

If it's less than 8-10 days before Election Day -

try using a Ballot Drop Box or a Vote Center (you can drop your mail-in ballot there!)

Find Nearest Ballot Drop Off Box

or

Find a Vote Center

and drop it off before 8:00pm on Election Tuesday!

Yes, it happens. People do mail empty envelopes.

But there’s an easy way to check if your ballot is there, in the envelope.

There’s a little hole in the envelope. They put it near where you sign the envelope, so you won't miss it.

It’s there so you can check that your ballot is actually in there before you seal the envelope, sign, date, and return it.

Check the hole.

If you live alone, this error probably won't happen to you.

BUT, if there's more than one voter in your home, sheets of pages from other people's ballots can accidentally get mixed up. Sheet B of my ballot may end up in your envelope, and the reverse. That can invalidate both our ballots!

Do this, just to be safe:

1. Make a separate stack of sheets for each code number. Check the code numbers on every sheet of every mail-in ballot. Make sure they all match
2. Check that each stack has all the ballot sheets (and no extras).
3. Ballot sheets are "numbered" at the top corners of each page using letters, starting with A
4. Match the ballot stack's code number with the code number on a return envelope
5. Take your ballot stack and matching envelope, make sure you've voted, stuff the envelope, sign, date, and seal it 
6. Take it to a Drop Box or a Vote Center anywhere in Santa Clara County, or mail it if you have enough time.
7. Track your Ballot   Sign up for alerts from Track Your Ballot   

When you sign the outside of the envelope, there is also a line to put the date.

Very carefully and legibly, write the date that you put your completed ballot into the envelope near your signature on the return envelope. Use the format mm/dd/yyyy.

Seems strange to be so fussy, but that date can be very important if your ballot is ever challenged.

Up to 30% of ballots received from the U.S. Postal Service have postmarks that are either missing or unreadable, so the date you write on the envelope could be the only proof that you voted on time.

Even if you used a Drop Off Box or turned your envelope in at a Vote Center, it's an extra piece of evidence of timeliness, if your ballot is ever challenged.

If any of the previous 10 problems (or others) happen, you will get a letter (yes, a real, in the US mail, aka snail-mail, PAPER LETTER) from the County Registrar of Voters (ROV), telling you:

• the reason your ballot was rejected,
• how you can fix the problem,
• the deadline for getting that done (it will be a VERY SHORT time - County elections officials are required by law to turn in the results of the ballot count by the 31st day after the election, so rejections must be resolved quickly. )

So, after (or better, before) you send off your ballot: 

         Sign up for Where's My Ballot to get updates on your ballot's status: by txt, email, and/or phone call.

.

• Start checking your USPS mailbox every day for any letter from the Registrar of Voters. The letter could come anytime up through a month after election day. If you get one, Respond Immediately! If you do not respond, your ballot will probably be invalidated.

While mail-in ballots can not be counted until election night, starting a week before Election Day the envelopes can be checked for errors.

So you could be contacted even before election night, if, for instance, there's no signature on your envelope. All they'll want you to do is come sign your envelope so that it can be counted (yes, they really do want to help).