Additional vote centers open Saturday allowing voters to cast their ballot early at any one of more than 200 vote centers in the county. These locations will be open for four days leading up to and including the final day of voting, March 5. Vote centers allow voters to avoid long lines by voting early.
The hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Monday, March 4. On the final day of voting, Tuesday, March 5, all vote centers and official ballot drop boxes will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Locations for both are listed in your voter information pamphlet or you can find them online at sdvote.com.
Please note that Santee-Lakeside Elks Lodge is no longer serving as a vote center. Voters will be directed to the two nearest vote centers: Lakeside Community Center located at 9841 Vine St. and Willowbrook Golf Course located at 11905 Riverside Dr.
If you’re not registered to vote and want to participate in the election, you may visit any vote center to conditionally register and vote provisionally through March 5.
Once the voter registration is processed and the Registrar’s office confirms the voter did not vote elsewhere in the state, the voter registration becomes active and the provisional ballot is counted.
Vote centers replace polling places and provide more services. You can:
- Vote in-person or drop off a mail-in ballot
- Vote using an accessible ballot marking device
- Receive assistance and voting materials in multiple languages
- Register to vote or update your voter registration and vote on the same day
Voters may use a touch screen to:
- Make their selections on a ballot marking device
- Print out the official ballot
- Review it
- Place it in the secrecy sleeve
- Give it to a poll worker to insert in the ballot box
The ballot will be counted at the Registrar’s office. The ballot marking device does not store, tabulate or count any votes.
Remember, campaigning or electioneering within 100 feet of a vote center or official ballot drop box is not allowed. This includes the visible display or audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate or measure on the ballot. People may not circulate any petitions, including those for initiatives, referenda, recall or candidate nominations.
Don’t delay! If you have been holding onto your ballot, act now.
- Vote from home.
- Sign and date your return envelope, seal your completed ballot inside.
- Return it promptly by mail.
- Mail ballots postmarked on or before March 5 and received by the Registrar’s office by March 12 will be considered timely cast.
- Or return it to one of 146 official ballot drop boxes. The secure stand-alone boxes feature the Registrar’s logo along with the County seal and are labeled “Official Ballot Drop Box.”
- Go to a vote center.
- You can bring the official ballot you received in the mail, check in at the vote center, sign the electronic roster and cast your ballot free of its return envelope.
Find the ballot drop boxes or vote centers close to you through the Registrar’s online locator tool or inside your voter information pamphlet. For drop boxes, check each location’s hours of operation before heading out at sdvote.com.
The sooner the Registrar’s office receives your ballot, the sooner it is processed for the first release of election night results.
If you already returned your mail ballot, you can confirm when it was received by the Registrar’s office at sdvote.com or you can track it through the U.S. Postal Service by signing up for “Where’s My Ballot?”.
You can find an official ballot drop box or vote center near you inside your voter information pamphlet, or you can look it up online at sdvote.com.
If you plan to vote for president, the Registrar urges voters to review each political party’s rules.
Learn more about voting in the March presidential primary at sdvote.com, or call (858) 565-5800 or toll free at (800) 696-0136.
