Expanded voting options come to Alameda, Marin, Sonoma counties
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) -- As another California election gets underway, there are changes for voters in three Bay Area Counties. Alameda, Marin and Sonoma will be moving to the Voter's Choice Act, launched back in 2018. It's supposed to give voters more flexibility, but there will be some differences.
"We did have a smaller election in Windsor earlier this year where we did this model and things went really well," said Deva Marie Proto, Sonoma County Registrar of Voters.
After rolling with pandemic changes for two years Sonoma is now rolling out Voters Choice. For starters, that means a focus on voting by mail, since every California voter receives a vote-by-mail ballot.
"So they can return their ballot to one of our ballot drop-off boxes, to any of our vote centers, or they can return it in the mail," Proto said Wednesday.
For plenty of people, there are circumstances that can complicate a simple vote-by-mail.
"Yes I'm leaving for Armenia on the 18th," explained Oakland resident Molly Freeman. "So I wanna be sure to vote."
Freeman visited the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office because she's about to leave town, and hadn't received her ballot. She wanted to vote in person, but instead, she was handed a mail-in ballot. That doesn't mean she couldn't vote in person - if she wasn't leaving town. Voter's Choice means a choice of regional voting centers that open in stages.
"So we have seven locations across the county that are opening on May 28th," Proto said of Sonoma's plans. "And then starting on June 4th, we'll have 24 additional locations. So 31 total vote centers that will be open through Election Day."
So it's the mail-in ballot, or the voting center, and that probably means goodbye to the neighborhood polling station.
"I just enjoy coming down and voting in person," Freeman explained. "But I'm gonna go home and put this in the mail."