More will get mail-in ballots as Merced County forms new precincts

More than 10,000 of Merced County’s registered voters have been placed in vote-by-mail-only precincts by the County Registrar of Voters Office.

The office had to draw new precincts to accommodate the Merced and Los Banos city councils’ move to districts for local elections in November, according to Registrar Barbara Levey. The Los Banos Unified School District is also shifting to districts.

The new precincts are meant to cut down on confusion. “The main focus of this was making sure that anybody that lives within any set of district lines is getting the proper ballot,” Levey said.

Of the 285 precincts in Merced County, 164 of them will be vote-by-mail only, she said. So 10,689 registered voters must cast ballots through mail. Levey noted that 5,311 of them were already registered as permanent vote-by-mail voters.

There are 85,418 registered voters in Merced County, according to county records.

The vote-by-mail-only precincts each have fewer than 250 registered voters, the threshold at which California law allows registrars to convert precincts to mail-only. Levey said many of those precincts have zero registered voters, while others have a few dozen.

The office has had hiccups before in delivering the proper ballots. In fall 2014, nearly 1,000 voters got a ballot that omitted the names of candidates for one of the Merced College Board of Trustees races. New ballots had to be reissued to those voters.

The county has 56 polling places, according to staffers.

The number of vote-by-mail voters has increased each election cycle over the years, office staff said, making opening and maintaining polling locations more costly than makes sense. More polling stations means more paid workers and more training.

Levey said vote-by-mail ballots make the process easier and cheaper.

Voters in the new mail-only precincts will be notified of the change by mail. Ballots will begin to go out May 9 and can be returned any time. The postage is prepaid on ballots in all-mail precincts. Voters can also return the vote-by-mail ballot by dropping it off at the registrar’s office or at designated locations throughout the county.

Vote-by-mail ballots received shortly before or on Election Day are processed and counted before the close of polls on Election Day, she said. The results of those ballots are included in the first results released upon the close of polls at 8 p.m. on election night.

“So often I get asked about (vote-by-mail ballots) not counting,” Levey said. “They do count. In fact, they get counted first.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 6:32 PM with the headline "More will get mail-in ballots as Merced County forms new precincts."