This week voters across California received a suspicious text message saying they\u2019d failed to turn in their ballots for the Nov. 4 statewide special election on redistricting.<\/p>\n
The message may appear official. It includes the voter\u2019s name and address and links to an official website providing information on early voting and vote-by-mall ballot drop-off locations.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not from the state, and officials urge caution.<\/p>\n
The office of the California secretary of state received numerous reports from voters of \u201cinaccurate text messages from Ballot Now,\u201d according to a news release. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis has caused voters to believe their returned ballots have not been received or processed by county elections officials,\u201d Shirley Weber, secretary of state, stated in the release. \u201cLet me be clear: Ballot Now is not in any way affiliated with the California Office of the Secretary of State.\u201d <\/p>\n
Weber\u2019s office told The Times it doesn\u2019t know the intent behind the Ballot Now text messages, and \u201cwe are trying to get to the bottom of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballot Now did not respond to The Times\u2019 request for comment. <\/p>\n
Where voters can get trustworthy answers to their elections questions<\/p>\n
Voters can find accurate information on elections and voting at the state secretary\u2019s website<\/a> or at their county election office. The secretary\u2019s website<\/a> includes the complete list of county election offices. <\/p>\n Questions that the secretary of state\u2019s website can assist with include: <\/p>\n How do I check my voter status? By entering some personal information, you can see if you are registered to vote, where you\u2019re registered, and check that your political party and language preference are correct at the website\u2019s voter status page<\/a>. <\/p>\n How do I track my ballot? You can sign up to track your ballot through the state\u2019s online site Ballottrax<\/a>.<\/p>\n By signing up on Ballottrax, voters receive automatic updates when their county elections office: mails their ballot to them, receives their ballot, counts their ballot, or when the office has any issues with the ballot. Updates are available in 10 languages \u2014 including Spanish, Japanese and Tagalog \u2014 and you can choose to be texted, emailed or called with voice alert updates.<\/p>\n Where can I return my ballot? Los Angeles County residents can look for official vote-by-mail ballot drop-box locations or voter centers on the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder\/county clerk website<\/a>. <\/p>\n How to report something fishy <\/p>\n If you believe you\u2019re the victim of election fraud or have witnessed a violation of the California Elections Code<\/a>, you can submit a complaint form or call the secretary of state\u2019s office. <\/p>\n Fill out an online form<\/a>, download a PDF version of the form<\/a> and mail it, or call the office \u2014 English speakers can call (916) 657-2166 or (800) 345-8683; Spanish speakers can call (800) 232-8682.<\/p>\n The physical form can be mailed to the California Secretary of State Elections Division at 1500 11th St., 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814 or faxed to (916) 653-3214. <\/p>\n Los Angeles County residents are encouraged to call the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder\/county clerk\u2019s call center with any questions or concerns they have, said Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the office. <\/p>\n The registrar of voters can be reached at (800) 815-2666, and the number for voter center information is (800) 815-2666; choose option No. 1. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week voters across California received a suspicious text message saying they\u2019d failed to turn in their ballots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22682,7167,7,9,8,16613,22683,22679,17497,1776,22680,346,22678,1423,225,22681,1791,22677],"class_list":{"0":"post-30944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-automatic-update","9":"tag-ballot","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-california-secretary","14":"tag-county-clerk-website","15":"tag-county-election-official","16":"tag-early-voting","17":"tag-information","18":"tag-los-angeles-county-resident","19":"tag-office","20":"tag-official-website","21":"tag-question","22":"tag-state","23":"tag-suspicious-text-message","24":"tag-times","25":"tag-voter-smartphone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}