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electionline Weekly

Excerpt:

After 27 years in the elections world, Santa Cruz County, California’s Gail Pellerin is stepping down effective December 30 at the end of what she called “an extraordinary year” and certainly at the end of an extraordinary career.

It’s the giving season and CVF needs your support!

season of giving

Dear Friends,

In this season of giving, please donate to the California Voter Foundation!

Support from people like you is why in 2020, CVF:

  • Worked to reduce mail ballot rejections through research, advocacy, regulations and public education;
     
  • Conducted dozens of interviews and produced a music video to inform voters and help them prepare to vote safely during a pandemic; and
     
  • Served over one million visitors and 4 million pages from our web site, calvoter.org.

Long before the 2020 election, CVF helped lay the groundwork for secure, transparent elections by working to outlaw paperless electronic voting in California and ensuring meaningful, post-election audits are conducted. 

How California reached historic voter turnout despite pandemic, distrust

Excerpts:

Californians faced the naysayers and voted by mail in record numbers this election, potentially avoiding a pandemic super spreader event and showing the nation it could be done.

CalMatters interviewed voting officials in most of the state’s 58 counties and their verdict is in: The experiment with voting by mail saw few glitches, little drama and, instead, might well provide a blueprint for future elections across the country.

How California reached historic voter turnout despite pandemic, distrust

Excerpts:

Californians faced the naysayers and voted by mail in record numbers this election, potentially avoiding a pandemic super spreader event and showing the nation it could be done.

CalMatters interviewed voting officials in most of the state’s 58 counties and their verdict is in: The experiment with voting by mail saw few glitches, little drama and, instead, might well provide a blueprint for future elections across the country.

Inside California's Pandemic Election: How COVID-19 Changes Could Shape the Future of Voting

Excerpts:

Election officials across California are breathing a sigh of relief: An election that combined unprecedented changes and unmatched scrutiny amid a global pandemic resulted in historic levels of participation and few widespread issues.

Some features of this year's vote will hopefully go down as historical aberrations, like poll workers in protective gear and masked voters physically distanced in voting locations stocked with hand sanitizer.

All-mail ballots and multiple-day voting centers may be here to stay

Excerpts:

Of all the societal changes brought by the novel coronavirus, the one that lasts the longest might be the one we just went through: Everyone voting by mail.

Already the method preferred by more three-fourths of San Diego County’s voters, its apparent success in the just-concluded election has some officials talking openly about making it permanent.

Votes In Tightly Contested Nevada Still Need To Be Cured. But What Does That Mean?

Excerpts:

In an election where margins are razor thin, Nevada could play a pivotal role in deciding who will be president of the United States. But observers warn that many mail-in ballots could be left out of the final count. 

According to Heather Carmen, Assistant Registrar of Voters for Washoe County, ballots are most often challenged by officials when the voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file — or if the ballot was never signed to begin with.

Interview: California Voter Foundation breaks down the ballot process, common mistakes of mail-in voting

Excerpts:

With election results in so some states still too close to call, voters may need no greater lesson to teach them that every single vote really does matter.
 
That’s the message Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation has been trying to convince people of for years, while working on our election systems to make clear votes possible.

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