Why is voting so complicated? Please help me (California)

October 22, 2018 12:44 PM

Can I change my DMV address today, use it to get a mail-in ballot today, and then change my address back after?

For reasons, I put my driver's license and vehicle registration with my parents' address in another county in California. I live at a different residence address in another county, and registered for my voter registration and got my receipt twice, but I've checked my status twice and it said I wasn't registered to vote....

Because of that, I found out that neither of my voter registrations at my current residence has gone through, and I know today is the deadline. I cannot find a straightforward answer for my predicament, and would like to ask for help.

1) Do I have to change both my mailing and my residence address on file for my drive's license and vehicle registration? What exactly do I need to change?
2) If I submit it online today, will it be processed fast enough so I can register for voter registration today and it'll be on file?
3) What happens if this doesn't work?

I also probably don't know other questions to ask, so please enlighten me!

posted by yueliang to Law & Government (6 answers total)

Response by poster: Okay so I submitted my change of address form, but it'll take it three days to process. So does that mean I'm going to have to do a provisional ballot, or can I still register to vote today?
posted by yueliang at 1:09 PM on October 22, 2018

Have you tried to do the online registration? It might work!

If it doesn't, can you go to your county election office, or at least call? You should be able to register on paper even if you can't do it online, but it will probably require you to actually go somewhere to hand in the paperwork.
posted by mskyle at 1:16 PM on October 22, 2018

In your research about this predicament did you get any insight from a real live human yet at your town/city's voter registration office? Even if you can not reach a live person in your city, I bet if you try a few offices-of-the-registrar in smaller towns in california, you'll eventually find a human who answers and could have some insight or at least refer you to someone else who might know. This sounds like a situation where the phone is your friend..
posted by elgee at 1:17 PM on October 22, 2018

Best answer: During the primaries both MuddDude and I had issues with our registration, and our local county board of elections had a very helpful staffer who sorted it out for us. It seems to me like state-wide registration system is finicky and local staffers have to help sort it out quite often. They will also be able to walk you through the process of casting a provisional ballot with conditional registration, if it can't be sorted out today.
posted by muddgirl at 1:22 PM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Here is the list of county election offices.
posted by muddgirl at 1:24 PM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you! I just called and met a very frustrated staffer on another line. After we had some unclear questions and answers, he just asked me for my name and said I was registered to vote but the state hasn't sent me any mail yet, and to not wait on the voter registration ID card to come in. He also told me to not trust the DMV when it comes to voter registration lmao.

I feel bad for these county staffers, I think I just wanted to avoid calling because I know what it's like on the other line to have to answer a dozen calls and I didn't really want to bother them, and I tend to absorb stress haha.

Thank you for all of your help! What a sad, broken process but it's so necessary haha.
posted by yueliang at 1:28 PM on October 22, 2018 [2 favorites]