The Orange County Board of Supervisors, at its February 26 meeting passed the Voters’ Choice Act for OC. The action was recommended by OC Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley.  It will be partially implemented by primary 2020 and fully implemented by the general election time in November of 2020.

The California Voter’s Choice Act, passed in 2016, expands voter options on how, when and where ballots are cast making voting more accessible for more people.

Among improvements cities must open a vote center 10 days prior to Election Day for every 30,000 registered voters. For every 15,000 permanent vote-by-mail voters, there must be one ballot-drop-off box location open 29 days before Election Day. Additionally Californians will be able to register and vote the same day. Increased security and lower overall costs are also benefits.

OC failed to adopt the Voter’s Choice Act in 2018. One of the impacts of that decision was that Fullerton was unable to consider the option of holding a special mail-in election to select a replacement councilmember for a recently vacated council seat. Even though the mail-in ballot option will now be open for City Council to choose in the event of a future vacancy, residents may wish to make the “option” mandatory for Fullerton.