Registrar of Voters Urging Vote-By-Mail Ballots Be Taken to Drop-Off Centers

There may still be time for the Registrar of Voters to receive your vote-by-mail ballot before the 8 p.m Tuesday deadline, but it depends on where you live. Instead, the county is urging you to use any of their drop-off locations - which will have extended hours, including this weekend - to make sure your ballot is counted.

"If you live say, in San Jose, or the southern part of the county, your mail goes here," Elma Rosas, media officer for the Registrar of Voters office. "But if you're in the northern part of the county, your mail first goes to San Francisco."

In other words, that extra time your ballot spends traveling north, then back south, may make it arrive a day late at the Registrar's office.

It doesn't matter if your mail is postmarked prior to Tuesday. If it doesn't arrive at the Registrar of Voters office by Tuesday at 8 p.m., it won't be counted.

"Personally, if I had a vote-by-mail ballot, I would deliver it to one of the drop-off sites instead," said Rosas.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office is located at 1555 Berger Drive, Bldg. 2. It will be open Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For your convenience, there is a white 24-hour drop box in the parking lot.

The drive-thru ballot drop-off sites will be open on Monday and Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those sites are in Saratoga, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto and San Jose.

There are also drop-off sites at Foothill, DeAnza, and Evergreen Valley Colleges, and at San Jose State University.

And you can drop your vote-by-mail ballot at your neighborhood polling place on Tuesday anytime before 8 p.m. Here's a link for you to find your own polling place.

"We're doing everything we can to try to get those ballots," says Rosas.