#california-special-election

#california-special-election

Voter registration has increased over the past decade since California began automatically registering motorists to vote when they applied for or renewed a driver license, the researchers said, following a similar move by Oregon. This change made citizens' right to vote not different from other rights, like free speech and due process, which do not require opt in' processes, said IGS Co-Director G. Cristina Mora. Eliminating such voting barriers has increased voter participation and diversity, the effects of which we are witnessing now.

The Trump administration announced Friday that it would send monitors to five counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Kern and Fresno for the Nov. 4 special election. The Justice Department said in a news release that it would send monitors to polling places and to offices of registrars of voters to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.

Over 4.5 million ballots were cast, either by mail or in person, as of Sunday, Oct. 26, according to the California secretary of state's office. The secretary of state's office sent more than 23.2 million vote-by-mail ballots to registered voters in recent weeks. Eligible voters who did not register to vote by the regular deadline, and therefore weren't sent a mail-in ballot, may have cast a conditional or provisional ballot in person instead. Their votes are included in Sunday's tally.