Voting in California

Registration Deadline
How to Register
Are You Sure You're Registered?
More Information About Voting

Decisions are made every day; from election funding to health care, from choice for teens, to sweeping land-control issues. Whether a governing body seems remote, or as local as the County Clerk and City Council, being a registered voter is an important step to being an active part of the solution.

Voter Registration Deadline, October 23rd

In California, October 23, 2006 is the voter registration deadline for the upcoming election (of November 7th). Your County Elections Office must have received your registration card by this date in order for you to vote in the primary. (It can also be postmarked October 23, but if it gets postmarked late, it will not be acccepted - so it's better to just hand deliver if you can.)

How to Register

Register by filling out a registration form and filing it with Your County Elections Office (in the county where you reside). If you are a college student or military, this may mean that you register in the county that you consider to be your home. Important voter information will be sent to the mailing address you specify.

Fastest Way to Register
Go to your County Elections office, fill out a registration form, and personally hand it to them. You will be registered on the spot.

Fairly Speedy Way to Register
Mail your registration form to your County Elections office. You can call and have them mail you a form, pick one up from a location in town (often a library or post office), or download the form: in English or en Español. This entire process usually takes about a week including mailing time.

Slow Method
Filling out the on-line form is the slowest way, and could cause you to miss the deadline. First you fill out the form and click the "submit" button to send it in. In about two weeks (or more if the system gets backed up), the state will mail you a form to sign. You must then send that form to Your County Elections Office.

Are You Sure You Are Registered?

During the 2000 and 2004 elections tens of thousands of people went to the polling places only to be told they were not listed on the voting list and thus could not vote. The reasons could be as simple as a precinct line being redrawn so that the voter needed to go across town to vote. It could be as complex as voter databases being erroneously "scrubbed" by state officials. If your county recently got new voter equipment, there could be errors transferring data from one system to another.

Receiving a sample ballot and polling location information in the mail is one way to confirm that you are registered. Another very simple way to confirm that you are still on the list is to phone your local elections office and ask them.

More Information About Voting

Official California Voter Registration Page
Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's Web Site

Voting Rights Groups File “Friend of the Court Brief” in Kentucky Voter Purge Case
Project Vote
September 25, 2006

Thousands of Voters Dumped Off California's Voting Rolls
State Senator Debora Bowen

McPherson, Lawmakers Need to Fix Trouble
Editorial: The Sacramento Bee
April 13, 2006

California Clean Money
Voluntary full public funding of election campaigns

HAVA
Help America Vote Act of 2002
Federal Election Commission

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