We are less than three months away from the Presidential election, which will also include a number of regional and local races and measures on the Central and South Coasts.
Mark Lunn is Ventura County’s Clerk-Recorder, and Registrar of Voters. His office oversees the voting process in Ventura County.
Lunn because of the coronavirus crisis, says the focus will by on the vote by mail process. However, people will still be able to cast votes in person if they want over several days leading up to November 3.
The President, and some others have been critical about using vote by mail. Different states are using different combinations of the voting process. But, Lunn says voter fraud concerns in Ventura County are baseless.
He says they have a two-step process. They have computers which scan the ballots to look for issues with ballots and signatures. But, they also have a hand verification process where the signature on the ballot, and the signature on file are compared.
The county official says they usually catch about 50 fraudulent ballots an election through their multi-step verification project.
You can double check your voter registration by going to the county’s website. If you’ve moved recently, you need to re-register through the California Secretary of State’s website, or your county website.
Lunn says voting by mail has been booming in popularity, and he thinks it is the future of elections.
He says in Ventura County, vote by mail made up about 40% of the ballots cast when he first took office more than a decade ago. Now, it’s up to more than 70%. Vote-by-mail ballots will go out in early October, giving you nearly a month to cast your ballot if you choose to do it that way.
