by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

Everyone in the state of California will receive a vote by mail ballot which can be returned through the United States Postal Service, postage paid. Ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by November 20 will be counted by the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder County Clerk.

The deadline for the clerk to receive ballots has been extended 14 days to allow for the volume of ballots anticipated to travel through the postal system.

Voters in Claremont will receive their sample ballots beginning on September 26 and their official ballot by October 5.

Voters can also deposit their mail-in ballot at one of two secure permanent drop off locations in Claremont—at the entrance of the Hughes Center and at the Harvard Avenue entrance of the Claremont Helen Renwick Library. Ballots can be dropped off day or night. These drop boxes will remain in place for the next five years and will be utilized for all elections during that period.

Voters can also deliver their mail-in ballots to any voter center throughout Los Angeles County, up to and including Election Day. Ballots cast in other cities  by Claremont residents will be sorted and batched with the rest of Claremont’s ballots by the county clerk.

Although every registered voter will receive a vote by mail ballot, they can still opt to vote in-person at any voter center throughout the county, not just at the ones here in Claremont. All vote centers will be open for five days leading up to and including Election Day, while several centers will be open for 11 days.

Claremont will have four vote centers—one that will be open for 11 days and three that will be open for five days. Our 11-day center will be at Taylor Hall at 1775 N. Indian Hill Boulevard. The five-day centers will be located at: Claremont Helen Renwick Library, meeting room, 208 N. Harvard Ave.; El Roble Intermediate School, multipurpose room, 665 N. Mountain Ave.; and Claremont Center for Spiritual Living, Holmes Social Hall, 509 S. College Ave.

Eleven-day voter centers will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., October 24 through November 2, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Five-day voter centers will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., October 30 through November 2, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Register to vote online or by mail via a paper registration form. The deadline to register to vote is October 19 and paper registration forms must be postmarked by that date.

The library has paper voter registration forms for anyone who cannot or does not want to register online. Library staff will figure out how to get the form to anyone who requests one, Library Manager Amy Crow said during this week’s city council meeting. For more information call the library at (909) 621-4902, Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.