Oceanside Voters: How To Track Your Ballot

OCEANSIDE, CA — Many registered Oceanside residents have likely already returned their votes for the Nov. 5 General Election, but it's important to know how to track your ballot.

Counties were required to mail out ballots by Oct. 7 — all active, registered voters are expected to receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the general election.

California's Secretary of State is offering a "Where's My Ballot?" tool called BallotTrax that allows voters to monitor the status of their vote-by-mail ballot. If you're still waiting on your ballot to arrive in the mail, this tool can also be used to sort out where it may be.

Tracking Your Ballot

Whether you dropped your ballot at a dropbox, through the mail or in-person at a vote center, you'll be able to see when your ballot is accepted through the state's tool, which was created in 2020.

Residents can visit this link to access BallotTrax. Then, enter your legal first and last name, date of birth and your current zip code. The site will then prompt you to set up text and email alerts.

Once you're in, you will be able to see your "current mail ballot status." Scroll down and you'll also see your previous mail ballots and whether they were cast in-person.

Ballot Box Collection

According to the California Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, ballots are collected on a regular basis from dropboxes.

• Ballots are retrieved from both staffed and unstaffed drop boxes at least every 96 hours, except weekends, between the 29th day before the election and the 10th day before an election.
• Ballots are retrieved from staffed drop boxes at least every 72 hours, except weekends, after the 10th day before the election through the closing of the polls on Election Day.
• Ballots are picked up from unstaffed drop boxes every 48 hours, except weekends, hours after the 10th day prior to an election through the closing of the polls on Election Day.

When the polls close on Election Day, all drop boxes shall be locked or covered at 8 p.m. and elections officials are expected to retrieve as many ballots as practical before 11:59 p.m.

San Diego County elections officials are required to certify to Weber's office that all ballots have been retrieved from all staffed and unstaffed drop boxes.

Registering To Vote

The last day to register to vote online was Oct. 21, but you can still take advantage of
same-day voter registration, also known as conditional registration — available for those who miss the deadline to register to vote or update their information before the Nov. 5 election.

Conditional Voter Registration is described as a "safety net" for eligible residents who need to register at the last minute, according to Weber's office. These ballots are processed and counted once the county election office has completed the process of verifying the registration.

In Oceanside, you can complete the same-day voter registration process at the following locations:

• Bonsall West Elementary School, MPR, 5050 El Mirlo Drive
• MiraCosta College, Board Room, 1 Barnard Drive
• El Corazon Senior Center, Classrooms, 3302 Senior Center Drive
• John Landes Community Center, Meeting Room, 2855 Cedar Road
• Oceanside First Presbyterian Church, Great Hall, 2001 S El Camino Real
• Mission Vista High School, Theater, 1306 Melrose Drive
• Laurel Elementary School, MPR, 1410 Laurel St.
• Libby Elementary School, MPR, 423 W Redondo Drive
• Lincoln Middle School, MPR, 2000 California St.
• Oceanside Civic Center, Community Rooms, 300 N Coast Highway
• Madison Middle School, MPR, 4930 Lake Blvd.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, MPR Half, 1290 Ivey Ranch Road
• Roosevelt Middle School, Library, 850 Sagewood Drive
• T.H.E. Leadership Academy, MPR, 1550 Temple Heights Drive

If you need to register on Election Day, you can also visit the San Diego County office at 5600 Overland Ave. in San Diego and polling locations in Oceanside. On Nov. 5, residents will be able to access same-day voter registration and cast their ballots between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If you are voting for the first time after registering to vote by mail and you did not provide your driver's license number, California ID number or the last four digits of your social security number on your registration form, you may asked to show a form of ID when you arrive at the polls, according to the Secretary of State's office.

If this is the case, bring a form of ID with you or include a copy of it with your vote-by-mail ballot.

Who's Registered To Vote In San Diego County?

In San Diego County, there were 1,938,487 total registered voters as of Sept. 6, according to the latest registration report from California's Secretary of State. Of those voters, 41.16% were listed as Democrats while 27.68% were registered under the Republican party.

As of Sept. 6, some 22,310,352 Californians had registered to vote. Of those voters, 46% had registered Democrat while almost 25% registered Republican. Another 22% had no party preference and 7% listed "other," according to the Secretary of State.

The counties with the largest increase in registered voters were Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego and Los Angeles counties.