Election Day is on the horizon, and if you haven’t yet registered to vote in Orange County, you’ve got plenty of ways — and plenty of time — to make sure your ballot is ready to go before November.

Filling out a voter registration form online may be the easiest way to go for many. The Orange County Registrar of Voters website includes a portal that takes visitors to the California Secretary of State’s page where residents can register using their driver’s license and the last four digits of their social security number.

Those who don’t provide those details may have to show some ID or proof of residency at the polling place.

Before the Oct. 24 registration deadline, OC residents can also request the county elections office mail them a registration form to fill out by hand, said OC Registrar of Voters Bob Page. The form can be picked up at the elections office, a post office, library, city or county hall, or the DMV. The document includes instructions on how to mail it back in.

While the official deadline to register to vote is 15 days before the election, residents can technically turn in their paperwork and cast a ballot on the same day right up until Election Day, Nov. 8, by handing in a conditional registration at the county elections office or one of the many voting centers around OC that will be taking ballots, Page said.

Late registrations create “a little more work for us,” Page said, but it’s a service available to residents if they need it.

For those who register conditionally, their ballot is considered provisional and county elections office staff “will research their information,” Page said, to “make sure they are not registered or voted in another county before we open that ballot and count it.”

Within the next month, the “most important thing” voters need to do, Page said, is check to be sure their information is up-to-date before the Registrar of Voters mails out ballots in October.

The office pulls its list of voters’ addresses “well in advance of when we actually mail the ballots,” he said, so sooner is better.

“If they want to make sure the ballot gets to them, we do encourage that they check their registration,” Page said.

That can be done on the county elections website as well. Those who have moved to a new address within the county don’t need to fill out another registration affidavit and can just update their current registration with the new information, Page said.

Voting information guides, which include personalized details on candidates running and ballot measures based on a resident’s address, are expected to start being mailed at the end of September. Mail-in ballots will be available beginning Oct. 10.

A host of school and special districts in OC are on the ballot this year, along with county supervisor and city council races. Statewide, voters will choose the governor and lieutenant governor, the attorney general, congressional representatives, and assembly members, among many other open seats. A full list of races on the ballot can be found on the Registrar’s website.

Early voting opens 11 days before Election Day. The OC Registrar of Voters will put up a list of voting centers, where residents can cast their ballots and register conditionally, on their website closer to that time. More than 180 sites will be included, Page said.

Related Articles