In just a couple weeks, sample ballots for the Nov. 7 General Election will be arriving in residents’ mailboxes, according to City Clerk Karen Diaz. The voter pamphlets which summarize the various ballot measures and candidates running for city and county seats as well as federal and state election material will be mailed out beginning Sept. 28 through Oct. 17, Diaz said. Absentee ballots, or what the county Registrar is now calling “EasyVote” ballots will be sent out beginning Oct. 9. Any registered voter can vote by mail. Mail ballot requests must be received by the Registrar of Voters office seven days before the election. Within seven days of the election, registered voters can apply for a mail ballot in person or by authorized representation at the Registrar of Voters office. EasyVote applications are available on the county Registrar’s Web site at www.acgov.org/rov or voters can mail a letter of application to Registrar of Voters, P.O. Box 24224, Oakland, CA 94623. Requests can also be faxed to 510-272-6982.
Residents will have to prepare to vote in a new way for this coming election. The county will have voters using paper ballots where voters will mark their selections on the ballot with an ink pen. The ballot will then be fed into optical scan machines purchased from Sequoia Voting Systems, according to spokesman Guy Ashley of the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
“We had to upgrade our equipment because there’s a new state law that passed last year that required that all touchscreen (voting machines) had to have a paper audit trail that would print out the voters’ choice due to concerns of recording votes,” Ashley said.
The Registrar began prepping for election season extra early this time due to the new voting system by recruiting and educating poll workers much sooner.
“We have to recruit 4,000 people to staff the 825 polling locations across Alameda County and now it’s particularly tough since we’re using the new machines,” Ashley said.
He said 10 poll worker supervisors are still needed to staff some of the 41 polling places in Pleasanton. Volunteers will be paid between $100 and $150 for their day-long service on Nov. 7. If interested, an application is available on the Registrar’s Web site, www.acgov.org/rov or by calling (510) 272-6971.
Diaz said early voting will be offered again by the city, although the location and dates and times are still being worked out. Voter registration forms are available at Pleasanton City Hall, 123 Main St. For more information about Sequoia, visit www.sequoiavote.com.
