Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Elections Division
Registered voters in Santa Barbara County started receiving their mailed ballots yesterday (September 29) ahead of the county Voter Information Guide, not to be confused with the California State Voter Information Guide that started arriving last week.
Monday afternoon (Sept. 28), ballots were delivered to the local United States Postal Service (USPS) to ensure voters received their ballot with ample time to vote and return prior to Election Day. In less than 24 hours, ballots started arriving in voter mailboxes today due to the great service provided by our local USPS staff.
County Elections is mailing the County Voter Information Guide to voters beginning Thursday, October 1. However, voters may view the County Voter Information Guide and State Voter Information Guide online now or choose to wait for and review the printed guides to arrive before voting their ballot.
In 2019, the California State Legislature passed AB 49, the California Voter Protection Act that changed the requirement for the timeframe for county election officials to mail ballots from “beginning 29 days before the day of the election” to “no later than 29 days before an election” and also requires officials complete any vote-by-mail mailing within five days.
- Voter Information Guides are required to be prepared by at least 29 days before the election, or October 5 in this case.
- Voter Information Guides are required to be mailed to any voter registered as of October 5 by the 10th day before the election.
- County Elections will continue to mail ballots throughout the voting period up to seven days before the election for new registrants or to voters needing a replacement ballot.
The Santa Barbara County Registrar of Voters Office wants to help make the voting process as easy as possible. For questions or assistance, please go to www.SBCvote.com or call (805) 568-2200.
The problem is that according to the California official Voter Information Guide, October 5th is the date that Counties will begin mailing vote-by mail ballots.
Why is this a problem?
The issue is Joseph Holland had printed and released ballots that were mailed out on 9/28 to Santa Barbara County which includes Santa Maria and they have received their official Ballot to vote a full week before the October 5th release date .
Registered voters however have not received the voter information and candidates statements that Santa Barbara County Candidates have paid thousands of dollars to the Santa Barbara County Elections Office to print and send to voters before release of voting ballots. This leaves Voters with ballots in their hands with no information about candidates or their positions. This clearly favors any incumbents as most people without information just vote the incumbent or leave it blank.
Well this is a first. Last yr I received my sample ballot & info guide a month before I received my ballot. Same with the previous election.
The elections office have had candidate info & filing fee, $5,000 to $11,000 per candidate, since August over a month ago.
I know people who have already completed their ballot and mailed them.
At a minimum the elections office should refund the thousands they collected since they did not deliver what they sold to the candidates.
“ County Elections is mailing the County Voter Information Guide to voters beginning Thursday, October 1” There are links to the voter guides linked above
So wait? I don’t see what the problem is
The problem is the ballots came before the voter guide with candidate statements. This gives incumbents an unfair advantage. And what is the point of paying the candidates pricey fees when many people will vote without the opportunity to read the statements.
The voter guide is available online if you care to see it early. Otherwise you’ll have to wait a few days. I think the benefits of getting ballots out to people early outweighs the disadvantage of mailing the voter guide late. And let’s be honest, the kind of people who will vote without viewing the voter guide online or waiting a few days until it arrives in the mail probably weren’t going to look at it anyway.
There’s a link above to view the voter guide online
Filling my ballot out right now. I VOTED 🙂
40% of voters don’t use or have access to the internet, such as seniors & low income.
By depriving them of the information to make an informed choice you deprive them of a thoughtful vote.
Or do “we” as a society not care about informing & educating everyone equally?
I’m not sure where you got your 40% number but I agree that not everyone has internet access. If you don’t have internet then you can wait a few days until the voter guide arrives. Election Day isn’t for over a month. Don’t worry! There’s time.
There is Voter Guide info for all the propositions online. I just typed in “proposition (fill in #) California” for each prop and it was easy to find the info. Arguments for and against. School Board is a bit less clear, but I went to Noozhawk and read who is conservative and who isn’t and who League of Women Voters is backing, etc. ————- All done filling out my ballot. As I sealed it up, I realized I was in a cold sweat. Kind of shaky hands, too. Can’t wait to have a reputable, intelligent and decent President in office.
6:05 – they don’t ask us to vote online, so they should not be demanding we now must research the issues and candidates online when, they paid upfront to have printed information in voters hand. Why charge the candidates anything, if the county is just going to put this info online and expect voters to access it this way – for pennies, not hundreds of dollars the candidates had to pay for the printed material that was never sent along with the ballots. This was a very unfortunate fail on county elections part. Insulting really to say, go read it online but thanks for giving us the money to print and distribute hard copy materials that did not get to voters in a timely manner. Give the candidates their money back.
Considering how many government employee union members there are in this town, they simply get their slate voting instructions from their unions so they have no need for printed candidate statements from the county. But others do. County workers who are union members seem to be very dismissive about this major breach in timely election material mailing – “go read it online” is not an acceptable answer.
Yes. Particularly about the propositions as it’s tough to keep them straight. With our declining and biased news coverage it is one of the only places to get information.
Do people realize that “school” expenses represent 62% of the entire property tax bill? And it doesn’t go to kids. Look at Goleta Union School District for example. They run their budget at a deficit. 87% of which are salaries. The majority of which are executives in title. The board members make north of $200k per year and then the golden parachute. But they want to pass another $19.21 per year for the kids? Oh that’s all? You have the money already for the kids. Spend what you have FOR the kids and not for yourselves.
Lots of state requirements that take admin staff to endure the District’s programs are in compliance with the law. This is also why UCSB has so much overhead in their budget that has very little to do with teaching. You want to reduce admin staff, then talk to Hannah-Beth and Monique about the laws they passed.
It is for me, that’s what I’m doing right now.
Good Lord, it’s not rocket science. There is plenty of information for the voters. Drop off your ballots. I don’t understand all the confusion and worry?
Wow, this seems like a major obstacle to you. Sorry that this has happened to you.