News 8 viewers have a lot of questions about mail-in ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. News 8 took those questions to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, Michael Vu, to get answers.
"What is the safeguard that a person will not go in person and mail in a ballot and vote twice?"
"We've always had safeguards, whether it's the upcoming election or any past election," said Vu. "There are systems in place to notify us about the disposition of every voter's mail ballot through our electronic poll book."
He explained if someone tried to vote in person after receiving a mail-in ballot, it would show that in the electronic poll book, and that person would be given a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions about a given voter's eligibility that must be resolved before the vote can count.
"Will a ballot be mailed to me automatically in San Diego County?"
"Yes, for this upcoming election a mail-in ballot will be sent to every registered voter in our county, so you have to be an active registered voter to be able to receive a ballot automatically," said Vu.
"Why are mail-in ballots not being sent until Oct. 5? It just took me three weeks to receive an invoice from my dentist, after the postmark date go figure!"
"Every election mail-in ballots are not sent until 29 days before the election. No difference in this election as well," said Vu.
"Will libraries in San Diego County be a drop off location for election ballots?"
"Yes! Many of the 125-plus mail-in ballot drop-off locations are going to be county and city libraries," said Vu.
"I recently moved and left my new address at the post office. Will my ballot be forwarded to my new home?"
"The answer to that question is no. You would need to re-register to vote," said Vu.
He told News 8 the deadline to re-register is October 19. He said they never forward ballots to an address because there are a number of contests a person could be eligible to vote in based on their current address.
"Do I pay for parking at the San Diego Registrar of Voters?"
No. There is free parking at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Vu said parking will also be free at all of the super polling sites.