A box collecting completed mail ballots sits outside Contra Costa’s election offices in Martinez on May 8, 2026.
Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle
Time is running out to get your ballot in the mail and ensure it will make it to your county election office in time to count, local registrars and advocates are warning ahead of the June 2 primary election.
“If you’re going to mail it, do it today,” said Pamela Smith, the president of advocacy group Verified Voting.
Despite safeguards and buffers that give California voters more flexibility than many other states, one of the leading reasons a ballot is rejected is because it arrived at election offices too late or was postmarked after Election Day.
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In California, ballots arriving to county election offices by mail must be postmarked by Election Day — June 2 — to count under state law. County officials can receive and process the ballots for another seven days after Election Day, as long as the ballots are postmarked by Election Day. But a new U.S. Postal Service policy implemented this year under President Donald Trump has added a major caveat: It’s no longer certain that a ballot dropped into the mail on Election Day will be postmarked on Election Day.
The Postal Service said in January that operational changes — like how often mail is picked up — mean that sometimes mail pieces aren’t arriving at processing facilities the same day they’re mailed. Under the new definitions, a postmark is only added when a piece of mail is processed.
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“This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer’s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location,” the Postal Service outlines on its website.
Those in rural locations farther away from central processing facilities are more likely to experience a gap between a ballot being mailed and when it’s postmarked. Voting experts say that ideally, voters relying on standard mail should get their ballots en route to their election office a week before the election. But because California’s primary is already less than a week away, going directly to a post office may be a better option than dropping a ballot in the mailbox.
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The Postal Service recommends that those voting by mail through the post office ensure a ballot envelope is postmarked with the proper date — either on, or before, Election Day — by asking a clerk for a manual local postmark stamp at a post office counter.
Ballots that have been properly postmarked need to arrive at a county election office by June 9 to count. Secretary of State Shirely N. Weber still recommends voters get ballots to post offices before Election Day, even with the weeklong buffer.
Last week, Weber announced more than 1.5 million vote-by-mail ballots had been returned so far by California voters.
“This early participation shows California voters are engaged and taking advantage of expanded voting options” Weber said in a statement. “If you haven’t already voted, make sure to vote by the deadline.”
During the 2024 general election, about 16.1 million Californians voted. The vast majority of those voters — about 13 million people — did so by mail. The remainder cast ballots at local polling locations or regional vote centers. Voter participation for the state was a little over 71%.
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As of Tuesday, more than 5.4 million Californians had signed up to track their ballot through the state’s “Where’s my ballot?” platform. Smith encourages all voters to use the tool. She said if a voter finds that their ballot has not arrived to election officials by June 2, they can go vote in person at a local polling place. Poll workers will mark that their vote-by-mail ballot should be voided by the time it arrives at the election office.
“One thing I don’t think people think about, is you don’t actually have to mail it,” Smith said. “You can drop it off at a drop box … you can drop it off all the way through Election Day. That’s one way not to fret about the post office.”
Those boxes, the locations of which are listed by each county, are emptied regularly by election workers. They’re also locked up or removed once polls close. Now that early voting locations are open, Smith said voters can drop off their complete ballots at those locations, too.
Counties could begin processing mail ballots as early as May 5, the day they were mailed to voters.
“Our personnel process all returned vote-by-mail ballots methodically,” San Francisco’s Elections Commission Director John Arntz said in a statement. “We follow strict chain-of-custody procedures so that no single individual handles a ballot independently.”
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Registrars around California — including San Francisco — are broadcasting livestreams showing election workers verifying signatures and separating ballots from their envelopes. It’s a tedious process that can add time to the overall tallying process compared with states that don’t mail ballots to every voter.
In Del Norte County, Supervisor Valerie Starkey used a public board meeting on Tuesday to remind constituents to vote — and vote early.
“So far, Del Norte County has a pretty low turnout,” Starkey said. “We’re encouraging everybody to either get your ballots in or drop them off early … or get to the polls and vote. It’s very important to have your voices be heard.”
Smith said she recommends following your respective elections office on social media to get all the latest information and alerts. She also encouraged voters to be mindful of notices from election officials regarding signature verification. Election officers may try to reach you via phone or text message if they flag your signature because they believe it doesn’t match the signature on file in their records.
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If a signature seems off, they will notify the voter and give them until June 24 to fix — or “cure” — their signature before the ballot can be counted.
Smith said she understands why voters may want to take their time to make final decisions, especially in such a crowded governor’s race.