Voting by mail? Voters urged to vote early in California’s special election.

Secretary of State’s office highlighted mail service change in certain parts of state during a voter education webinar

With ballots for the Nov. 4 special election hitting mailboxes this week, the California Secretary of State’s office conducted an education webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 7, to walk voters through the election process while also encouraging people to cast their ballots early.

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“I often let everybody know, always, that voting is your voice, that that’s who you are, that that is what this nation is, and we don’t take it lightly,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said during the webinar.

“And so we have done everything we can to make sure that our elections are safe and secure and that you understand what you’re voting for, and hopefully you will go to the polls to vote,” she added.

Voters will decide during the special election whether to approve or reject Proposition 50, which would redraw congressional districts mid-decade to give California Democrats an opportunity to pick up five more House seats in next year’s midterm election. The effort, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is in response to a similar gerrymandering effort by Texas Republicans hoping to ensure that the GOP retains control of the House in 2026.

During Tuesday’s webinar, representatives from Weber’s office encouraged people to vote early – especially if they plan on mailing in their ballots.

Due to changes to U.S. Postal mail service this year, people living more than 50 miles from a U.S. Postal Service regional mail processing hubs who drop off their ballot in a mailbox or at a post office on Election Day won’t have a guarantee that their ballot will be postmarked that same day. Instead, it could be postmarked the day after – too late for the ballot to count.

During a press conference last week, Weber and state Attorney General Rob Bonta shared a map showing six regional mail processing centers in California – two in the Los Angeles area and one each in Santa Clarita and San Diego. The last two were in Richmond in the Bay Area and in Sacramento.

Anyone living outside a 50-mile radius of these centers could be impacted by the change to the U.S. Postal Service, they said.

Given that, both the secretary of state and attorney general’s offices are encouraging voters who plan to vote by mail to do so before Election Day to ensure their ballot gets counted.

Click here to read the full article in the OC Register