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A box collecting completed mail ballots sits outside Contra Costa\u2019s election offices in Martinez on May 8, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Benjamin Fanjoy\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to mail it, do it today,\u201d said Pamela Smith, the president of advocacy group Verified Voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In California, ballots arriving to county election offices by mail must be postmarked by Election Day\u00a0\u2014 June 2\u00a0\u2014 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\u2019s no longer certain that a ballot dropped into the mail on Election Day will be postmarked on Election Day.<\/p>\n
The Postal Service said in January that operational changes\u00a0\u2014 like how often mail is picked up\u00a0\u2014 mean that sometimes mail pieces aren\u2019t arriving at processing facilities the same day they\u2019re mailed. Under the new definitions, a postmark is only added when a piece of mail is processed.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer\u2019s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location,\u201d the Postal Service outlines on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Postal Service recommends that those voting by mail through the post office ensure a ballot envelope is postmarked with the proper date\u00a0\u2014 either on, or before, Election Day\u00a0\u2014 by asking a clerk for a manual local postmark stamp at a post office counter.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, Weber announced more than 1.5 million<\/a> vote-by-mail ballots had been returned so far by California voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis early participation shows California voters are engaged and taking advantage of expanded voting options\u201d Weber said in a statement. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t already voted, make sure to vote by the deadline.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n During the 2024 general election, about 16.1 million Californians voted<\/a>. The vast majority of those voters\u00a0\u2014 about 13 million people\u00a0\u2014 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%.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As of Tuesday, more than 5.4 million Californians<\/a> had signed up to track their ballot through the state\u2019s \u201cWhere\u2019s my ballot?\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I don\u2019t think people think about, is you don\u2019t actually have to mail it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou can drop it off at a drop box \u2026 you can drop it off all the way through Election Day. That\u2019s one way not to fret about the post office.\u201d<\/p>\n Those boxes, the locations of which are listed by each county, are emptied regularly by election workers. They\u2019re 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<\/a>, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n Counties could begin processing mail ballots as early as May 5, the day they were mailed to voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur personnel process all returned vote-by-mail ballots methodically,\u201d San Francisco\u2019s Elections Commission Director John Arntz said in a statement. \u201cWe follow strict chain-of-custody procedures so that no single individual handles a ballot independently.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n