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There are more than 100 days until Election Day. But with major changes ahead for how Californians will vote and a lot of misinformation floating around, elections expert Kim Alexander believes people should get prepared now. 

That’s because by early October all counties will be required to send vote-by-mail ballots to the state’s 20 million active registered voters. And, Alexander said, elections officials will finalize mailing addresses as early as Labor Day. 

Following the harrowing scenes of voters braving long lines and exposure to the coronavirus during Wisconsin’s primary election last week, there is a renewed discussion of the importance of vote-by-mail options.

California has long been a leader in this area, but could we see an all mail-in election by November? Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation joins the Capitol Weekly Podcast’s Tim Foster and John Howard to chat about the positives and negatives of vote-by-mail, and she offers some surprises — including the high number of rejected mail-in ballots and the lowdown on voter fraud.

(Listen to podcast)

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Combined with more than half a million votes that the registrar has received through the mail, that would already represent a 13% turnout for L.A. County, if all the votes cast so far are counted.

The new system has its advantages, says Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, a voter outreach and research nonprofit. She said there have been bumps as the new system has been rolled out, but called the vote centers “a good fail safe for a place like Los Angeles where we have millions of voters.”

There are nearly a thousand voting centers to choose from, but many longtime polling places won’t be open this year.

I caught up with Alexander while she was driving between vote centers in Watts and Culver City to see how the new system was working.

She said she saw lines growing this morning, which could signal long waits tomorrow.

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For the first time since passing a 2017 law moving California's primary election date from June to March, the state's nearly 20 million registered voters are able to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday. California is one of 20 states allowing same-day voter registration where citizens can cast a provisional ballot. We'll take your voter registration and Election Day questions and we'll check in on how smoothly the voting process is going in the Bay Area.

Need to contact your county's election office with any questions, including about your polling place or voter registration status? (Full Audio)