More than a million people in San Diego have applied for mail-in ballots this year—a record number for the county, according to the Registrar of Voters.
People are lining up at drop-off locations to turn in their mail-in ballots early. For many, a lack of trust in the postal service is bringing them out—making sure that their vote counts on Nov. 8.
“This is the only place I trust and I don’t trust the post office,” said voter David Sawyer.
“I’m going to be out of the country on the eighth so I want to make sure I do my civic duty and get it done. And also, I don’t trust the by-mail,” said El Cajon resident David Swearingen.
There are a total of 25 drop-off locations set up across San Diego County. Michael Vu, from the Registrar of Voters in San Diego says they have been receiving calls from many of those locations, asking for more boxes to accommodate the record number of voters.
“In terms of registration, in terms of contests on the ballot, in terms of measures on the ballot, in terms of total number of mail ballots we sent out, we’ve never gone to a seven figure number that we’ve sent out mail ballots to,” Vu said. “Of the 1.6 million registered voters, we have sent out over a million mail ballots. We’ve never sent out a million mail ballot in a presidential election before and any other prior elections.”
Vu added that if you want to turn in your mail-in ballot on Nov. 8, do it at a designated drop-off location and not your assigned polling place to avoid long lines. He also advised that if you will be voting on Election Day, know what is on the ballot ahead of time and start early in case of any issues.
Local
“I made a mistake on my ballot, so I had to come back and get it corrected—had to get a new ballot,” one voter told NBC 7.
Out of the million people who requested mail-in ballots, Vu says approximately 300,000 of them have already submitted their ballots.
Tuesday, Nov. 1 is the deadline to request mail-in ballots.
