City of Cupertino, CA County of Santa Clara COVID-19 Videos, 7 Oct 2020

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From YouTube: County of Santa Clara Public Health: The Vote by Mail Option - October 7, 2020

Description

Starting Monday, ballots were being sent out to every registered voter in Santa Clara County for the November 3, 2020 Presidential General Election.

County Registrar of Voters Representative Shannon Bushey joins us to talk about what to expect in the mail, what to do with the ballot, how to track it all the way back to the Registrar’s Office. The safest pandemic option this year is to vote by mail.

Recorded October 7, 2020.

The City of Cupertino would like to express its thanks to the County of Santa Clara for the use of their video materials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus.

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For the latest information regarding the covid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit cupertino.org coronavirus.

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You can see it's starting to look a lot like an election around here we got a you know, reggie, the registration bear. I saw old uncle sam earlier. I understand there's a lot of things to be excited about here in santa clara county, as well as the state of california. Shannon. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on.

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Sure let me start with what happened just on monday, a couple days ago here at the registrar of voters, we began early voting where voters came into our office to cast our first ballots in this november's election.

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Also, this cut last monday, we milled owed nearly 1 million ballots to our registered voters in santa clara county, so you should all be on the lookout for this white envelope in your mailbox any day. Now, so it's been the opening of voting and mailing all the ballots out. So we're really excited yeah. Keep.

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Your eyes peeled for that thing, so shannon for people who have not yet voted by mail. Do you want to show him kind of the live ballot? That's inside that and give them the basics of what they need to do sure.

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I'd love to so again, you'll be looking for this in your mailbox, and let me show you some of what's inside so first, you have your ballots and this time you're going to have four ballot cards to vote on so get prepared and do your research. So these are your four ballot cards and there could be voting on contests on both sides of the ballot, and here now on your ballots, you just fill in the bubble the red circle, to the right of a choice on your ballot. So this is your ballot.

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Then, next inside your envelope, every voter is going to get the instruction sheets. This instruction sheet will show you how to fill in the circle. It also tells you how to do a write-in vote for those who want to vote for an official writing candidate, and it shows you how to correct your vote. If you actually happen to make a mistake and don't have time to get a new ballot and also inside it's, I know it's like a book because we offer our voters 100 vote centers to get out and vote.

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So we have a list of our vote centers here and we have a list of our 100 drop boxes that you can drop your ballot on so for the most up-to-date list. You're welcome to look on our website in case there were any changes since we printed this insert, but also notice on this insert this red white and blue sticker. That says, I voted. It is actually a sticker.

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So all you need to do is peel that off and then wear that proudly after you vote so be on the lookout for that and then inside you may have an update to the list of the vote. Centers and, most importantly, you're, just as important as your ballot cards is your brewery turn envelope. It's a blue envelope.

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That is postage free, no postage required. You don't have to worry about how much it weighs and how many stamps to put on it. And then this is where you need to sign.

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This will have your name and address information, but here at the red x, please make sure you sign your ballot and then put your address below and if you would like to authorize someone to come drop it off, for you just have them complete the upper right hand, corner and and that's what's going to come in the mail in your packet.

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So with the signatures, what if you get the ballot back and if someone forgot to sign- or maybe their signature has changed- it's been a while does that mean their vote? Doesn't count.

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No, of course not so what we do we process every single ballot that individually, that comes back to our office.

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First, what we do is we run these ballots uh envelopes through a high speed, sorter and while it sorts them, it also scans the outside of the envelope where your signature is, and then staff will be sitting at the computer terminals and the system will bring up the signature image from the envelope and the signature image that we have on their voter registration card and that's where um staff with their human eyes will be looking at the the signature on file and the signature on the signa on the envelope to make sure it matches.

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We don't do it with computers. We do it with our staff personally looking at every envelope and then you know it goes to multiple reviews. If the first staff member thinks the signature doesn't match, we'll send that up to another level and another level if needed.

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Even you know, the manager is looking at the signatures in our office and if um they all feel that they, the signature, doesn't match, we will send a communication to our voter to say either you missed putting your signature or we feel your signature doesn't match so watch for a letter after if, if we uh send you one of those letters- and you can return that the letter that's inside with your signature, that we can use and we'll also keep that for on file for our future uh signature checking. So it's okay.

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We will notify every voter if it doesn't match great.

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All right so back to the process, uh the ballot's been filled out. It's in the envelope the envelope is signed now.

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Have a couple different ways that they can get it back to you guys here at the rov correct.

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Yes, actually there's at least the three good options for you to choose from whatever fits you better and is more convenient for you. First of all, as I said, it's postage free, so you can place your ballot in sign it seal it and drop it off into the post office.

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You know in the postal service and it will be delivered to us or you can skip the post office and drop it into one of our a hundred drop boxes located in the county or at one of our 100 vote centers that will open up on october 31st.

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So if you drop it into a registrar's dropbox or into a vote center, it goes directly into our hands at the registrar of voters. So it just completely skips the post office. So whatever is more convenient for our voters to choose from. We have a lot of options. All.

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Right, so if someone does decide to uh drop it in the mailbox, it's the safest easiest way. I understand now there's a way that they can actually track their ballot and make sure that it gets to you guys and it gets counted. Can you tell us a little bit about that sure.

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There are two options that a voter can use to track their ballot, so there is one that where all the counties in the state are signed up with called where's.

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Wheresmyballot.Sos.Ca.Gov and there it's great because it tracks your ballot, all along the steps you sign up to get email, a text or a phone call, whatever you prefer and they will notify you that I got mine on monday saying my ballot was in the mail to me and then you'll get a notification when the registrar receives it. You know you get it along the way you can track it every step of the way, and you can also go to our sccvote.org our website and we have a page on there about tracking your ballot.

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That will show the day we mailed it. They received it. You know, but the where's. My ballot has a few more steps in it. If you'd like to track every single step, but um plenty of options again, all.

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Right, so we do know that some people really prefer to vote in person, or maybe they just want to fill out their ballot at home, but they still want to come here and put it in a box physically or go to go somewhere to put it in a box. Can you tell people about the options for in-person voting.

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Thank you. Yes, we have, as I said, the registrar of voters office opened on monday for early per in person voting, and we do understand you know I do want to say the best way. The safest way to cast your ballot is by mail, but we do understand that you know people will need replacement ballots or we provide language assistance at our vote centers. So you know- and I have heard that my dog ate my ballot, you know so they need to get a new one.

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So uh we have a hundred vote centers that are going to be open from halloween, easy way to remember october 31st through november 3rd, where they can go in person and vote, and I just want to let all of our voters yeah know that they have that many options.

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All right- and it is, you know we can't forget about kovid, so they tell people about. You know the precautions that are taken at these vote. Centers.

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Sure so, here in our office or at the vote centers, we have numerous safety protocols in place. We are using social distancing, we are using personal protective equipment, you know ppe such as mass and we are sanitizing our voting equipment after each voter uses it. So please, you know we are asking that every voter when they come in that they do bring a mass wear, a mass with them and if, for some reason they forgot it no problem because we will be able to.

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We are going to hand out disposable mass for any voter who needs one. So, yes, we're taking safety of our voters and of our staff very very seriously here and we're all set up and ready for voting fantastic.

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So ballots are out, voting has begun. Does that mean it's too late for someone who hasn't yet registered to vote.

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No not yet so if the deadline to register to vote and get yourself mailed, a ballot from our office is october 19th, so you still have plenty of time to get registered and if, for some reason you missed the october 19th cut off it's not too late.

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We have what we call conditional voter registration and what that is is where you have to go in person, though, to a vote center or office, and you will register and vote on the same day but you're going to place your ballot into an envelope that we give you and then you'll fill out the envelope with your information. Then it comes back to our office and we'll complete your registration and then be able to count your ballot once we've got you registered, so there still is an option, but the best thing for our vote.

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Our potential voters get registered before the 19th is just the simplest and the easiest way to do that. So I guess you know I really am asking our voters to get prepared. You know: are you registered to vote uh check your registration status? Do you need to update it because maybe you've moved do you? You know um you can also register online or in our office, but get prepared and make that plan? Are you going to vote by mail? Are you going to go to a vote center where's?

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You know my list in my vote centers and I'm going to choose one to go vote at so whatever your plan is just make that plan and get out and vote.

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All right, sound advice and thanks for all the information you've provided today, is there anything else you'd like to let us know about today.

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Actually, in addition, I am so proud of all of our community and all of the people in santa clara county that have got out and registered to vote and I'm so proud of our staff here at the registrar of voters who works day in and day out, to register people to vote that I have an exciting announcement today.

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We, as of yesterday, have hit one million registered voters in santa clara county, it's so exciting, and we're going to do a press conference today at noon here in our office, so watch for that later, but I'm just so proud of our entire santa clara county community to get registered and that you know is 83 percent of our eligible voters. Wow. Just four years ago we were only at 67 percent of our eligible voters. That's a 16 increase, so it's just wonderful and I'm so excited to announce that today. Well.

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Fantastic one million vote voters uh that is such a great note to end on shannon, and we look forward to seeing your press conference later today, thanks again for uh taking some time with facebook live today. Well,.

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Thank you for coming out to the registrar of voters, office and looking at all of our people voting and all our safety protocols in place. Thank you all.

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Right, that's going to wrap things up, but a quick reminder. We will have facebook live here uh at the rov in spanish at 11 today, and we will have facebook live and vietnamese thursday tomorrow at 10 a.m.

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Thanks thanks for watching everyone and uh stay safe out there and have a great day.

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Bye for the latest information regarding the covid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit cupertino.org.

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