SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Many San Diegans are wondering if their vote will actually be counted in the November election. In the past, we’ve had to trust the system, but now voters in California can sign up for a free service that documents their ballot every step of the way.
If you provided your email address when you registered to vote, you should have received an email last week from the California Secretary of State. It tells you how to sign up for the updates. Since voters have never received an email like this before, a News 8 viewer understandably asked, ”Is this legitimate, or a scam to get my personal information?”
“It is a legitimate email,” said San Diego County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu. “I received one as well as my wife received one and she asked me the exact same question and I told her it is a legitimate email.”
The sign-up process is supposed to be easy and only takes about three minutes. To see if it really is that simple, News 8's Steve Price signed up Wednesday afternoon. It asks for your first and last name, date of birth, and zip code.
With that information, it quickly verifies you’re a registered voter and asks you how you want to be notified about your ballot’s status. You can choose to get an email, a text, a voice call, or any combination of the three. It also asks you for the hours that you want to be notified between and your language preference.
Once the information is confirmed, a screen appears saying the information had been updated.
So, what exactly are you signing up to receive?
Registrar Vu explains, “It will give you push notifications as to when your ballot is going to you, getting to you, as well as when it's getting back to our office and then also when it has been counted.”
So now Steve will get an email when his ballot is on its way to his house, when it's been received by the registrar's office, and when it’s been counted. Within seconds of submitting his information, Steve received a welcome email, verifying that he signed up for the notifications. The whole process took about two minutes.
If you'd like to sign up for the notifications, click here to access the sign-up page.
