Still haven’t cast your ballot? Here are some last-minute reminders:

• Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Nov. 5. Those unsure if their ballot will make it in the mail in time can also bring their ballots to any polling location in the state or a ballot drop box in their counties by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
• Traditional in-person voting: Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 5. Click here to find your polling location.
• The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 5 election was Oct. 21, but residents can also register in person on Election Day for a conditional ballot. Click here to learn more.

Local Races

Riverside County has a plethora of contests. Depending on where you live, your ballot may be chock full of local races to decide. Here’s a look at everything being voted on in Riverside County (scroll to see all the races):

—U.S. Senate

A consequential contest to watch is the race for the U.S. Senate seat long-held by the late Dianne Feinstein. In fact, voters are casting their ballot twice in this race, choosing a candidate to finish out Feinstein’s current term and again for the next term, which begins in 2025.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey are both vying for the seat. Schiff, a progressive favorite in the Golden State, has served as a Democratic congressman here since 2000, representing the state’s 30th Congressional District in Los Angeles County.

Garvey, formerly an All-Star for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, advanced in March to the November ballot as a first-time political candidate. Republicans have failed to advance a candidate in two of the last three U.S. Senate races, making Garvey’s defeat of Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, a rare feat for the GOP in blue California.

According to a recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California, Schiff holds a 28 point-lead (63 percent to 35 percent) over Garvey. Schiff gained widespread name recognition for his role in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Read more about that race here.

—U.S. House

As for congressional races, the state’s most competitive contests for the U.S. House seats in California are primarily in three regions — the Central Valley, Orange County and the Inland Empire, according to the Public Policy Institute of California’s most recent election report. The competitive races include districts 3, 9, 13, 22, 27, 40, 41, 45, 47 and 49.

Currently, the GOP holds seven of these seats. Here’s a brief breakdown of the candidates in each competitive area:

• District 3, which hugs the Nevada border from Death Valley to the Sacramento suburbs, will see another contest between Republican Incumbent Kevin Kiley and returning Democratic candidate Jessica Morse. Kiley previously attempted to run for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s seat in a failed recall attempt.
• District 9 centered in Stockton pits Democratic incumbent against Republican challenger Kevin Lincoln II.
• In District 13 covering the San Joaquin Valley, Republican incumbent John Duarte — who flipped the seat red in 2022 for the first time since 1974 — will go up against Democrat Adam Gray. Since Redistricting in 2022, the district is considered a left-leaning swing district whose voters went for Biden in 2020 but chose a Republican representative in 2022.
• District 22 in the San Joaquin Valley will have Republican incumbent David G. Valadao challenge Democrat Rudy Salas. Both candidates were neck-and-neck during the March primary, with Valadao receiving 32.7 votes to Salas’ 31.3. Redistricting has shifted the 22nd to the left since 2020, making Valadao one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the House.
• In District 27, which covers northeast Los Angeles County, GOP incumbent Mike Garcia is pitted against George Whitesides, a former chief of staff of NASA during Barack Obama’s presidency and a formidable challenger for Garcia, who has held the seat since 2020.
• In District 40, covering northeast Riverside County, Democrat Joe Kerr will challenge Republican incumbent Young Kim.
• District 41 will have Republican incumbent Ken Calvert face off against a much younger Democratic contender, Will Rollins. Calvert is the longest-serving GOP member in California Congress. Rollins, who is gay, has clashed with Calvert over LGBTQ+ issues, which may prove to be a challenge for him in a district that encompasses Palm Springs.
• Orange County’s District 45, covering inland north county communities, is diverse both politically and by ethnicity, since the area hosts the largest population of Vietnamese people in the nation. There, Republican incumbent Michelle Steel will face off against Derek Tran, a Democrat known for his advocacy for workers’ rights.
• District 47, another Orange County stronghold, is currently represented by Rep. Katie Porter, who did poorly in the March primary and is not seeking reelection. Former GOP state legislator Scott Baugh, who lost to Porter previously, will challenge Sen. Dave Min.
• District 49 will see Democratic incumbent Mike Levin go up against Republican challenger Matt Gunderson.

—State Measures

Of course, it wouldn’t be a major election in California if there were not a slew of proposed propositions on the ballot.

There are 10 statewide propositions being voted on, including two $10 billion bond measures for school construction and to address climate change. There are also two amendments to the state constitution, one which would repeal the unenforceable ban on same-sex marriage and another that would make it easier for bond measures to pass by lowering the voter threshold from the current supermajority needed to approve bond measures.

However, the most hot-button measure on the ballot is Proposition 36, which seeks to reverse some of the criminal justice reforms passed when voters approved Proposition 47 a decade ago. If Prop 36 passes, it could significantly increase prison time for some drug and theft offenses that are currently misdemeanors.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into this year’s midterms, voting rights groups were concerned that restrictions in Republican-leaning states triggered by false claims surrounding the 2020 election might jeopardize access to the ballot box for many voters.

Those worries did not appear to come true. There have been no widespread reports of voters being turned away at the polls, and turnout, while down from the last midterm cycle four years ago, appeared robust in Georgia, a state with hotly competitive contests for governor and U.S. Senate.

The lack of broad disenfranchisement isn’t necessarily a sign that everyone who wanted to vote could; there’s no good way to tell why certain voters didn’t cast a ballot.

Voter advocacy groups promoted voter education campaigns and modified voting strategies as a way to reduce confusion and get as many voters to cast a ballot as possible.

“We in the voting rights community in Texas were fearing the worst,” said Anthony Gutierrez, director of Common Cause Texas, on Wednesday. “For the most part, it didn’t happen.”

False claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump undermined public confidence in elections and prompted Republican officials to pass new voting laws. The restrictions included tougher ID requirements for mail voting, shortening the period for applying for and returning a mailed ballot, and limiting early voting days and access to ballot drop boxes.

There is no evidence there was widespread fraud or other wrongdoing in the 2020 election.

An estimated 33 restrictive voting laws in 20 states were in effect for this year’s midterms, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The most high-profile and sweeping laws were passed in Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Texas. Arizona also passed new voting rules, but those were largely put on hold this year or will take effect later.

Of the four states with major voting law changes in effect, a preliminary analysis shows a decline in turnout among registered voters in Florida, Iowa and Texas, while Georgia turnout declined slightly. Several factors can affect turnout, including voter enthusiasm and bad weather.

In Texas, the bumbling rollout of new voting restrictions in the state’s March primary resulted in officials throwing out nearly 23,000 mailed ballots as confused voters struggled to navigate new ID requirements.

But preliminary reports after Tuesday’s election showed rejection rates reverting to closer to more normal levels, which election officials attributed to outreach and mail voters figuring out the new rules. In San Antonio, county officials put the preliminary rejection rate at less than 2% — a sharp reversal from the 23% of mailed ballots they threw out in March.

Groups such as the Texas Civil Rights Project, working through churches and other organizations, focused on ensuring voters knew how to properly complete their mail ballots under the law known as Senate Bill 1.

“As a Texas community we’ve worked very hard to prepare for SB1,” said Emily Eby, the group’s senior election protection attorney.

Florida last year added a host of new rules around mail and early voting. They included new ID requirements, changes to how many ballots a person can turn in on behalf of someone else and limiting after-hours access to drop boxes. This year, lawmakers created a controversial new office dedicated to investigating fraud and other election crimes.

Still, voting appeared to be relatively smooth this year, before and on Election Day. Election officials reported no major problems.

Mark Earley, president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, said the new laws did not greatly affect voter turnout or access this year, but said the rules, taken together, posed a challenge.

“When you put all of these together — the cumulative effect — it becomes confusing, difficult to communicate and educate the public about, difficult for the public to understand,” said Earley, who oversees elections in Tallahassee’s Leon County. “It becomes a big logistical and educational burden, and more hurdles for people to be able to jump over before they can get their ballots together.”

Iowa’s new law shortened the period for voters to return their mailed ballots, reduced polling place hours and early voting days, and prohibited anyone but close relatives, a household member or caregiver from dropping off someone else’s ballot.

More than 1.2 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 8 election. State officials said it was the second highest in state history for a midterm, but voting groups expressed concern that Latino participation may have declined due to the changes.

“We historically have had a fair amount of Latino voters who did the absentee ballot, which allowed LULAC volunteers to pick up those early ballots and return them to the county election offices,” said Joe Henry, a board member of the Iowa chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

In Georgia, more votes were cast in this general election than in any prior midterm election — although with more voters on the rolls than four years ago, the actual turnout rate was lower.

Gabriel Sterling, interim deputy secretary of state, noted that most of the changes in the election law, known as Senate Bill 202, affected pre-Election Day voting — “and they blew away every record in that.”

He said more votes were cast early — both in person and by mail — than in any previous midterm election in the state. It was Election Day turnout that was lower than expected.

After Democrats won the 2020 presidential contest and two U.S. Senate runoff elections, the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s election laws in 2021.

The law shortened the time period to request an absentee ballot and required voters to sign absentee ballot applications by hand, meaning they needed access to a printer. It also reduced the number of ballot drop boxes in the state’s most populous counties and limited the hours they were accessible.

Critics said the changes made it more difficult to cast mail ballots. Democrats urged people to vote early and in-person this year instead. Kendra Cotton, CEO of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, said she believes the election law did have a negative effect in a state where key races have been decided by narrow margins in recent elections.

“The narrative that’s out there is that SB202 was trying to depress the vote writ large, and we submit that that was not, in fact, the case,” she said. “It was trying to stop just enough people from voting that the electoral outcome here in Georgia would shift.”

This year, Republicans swept the statewide constitutional offices, and a Dec. 6 runoff will be held to decide the winner in the U.S. Senate race.

While she acknowledged there weren’t many problems on Election Day, Cotton said the law created a lot of “noise” that drained energy and resources from organizations such as hers.

“We’re having to go out and help voters fight to remain on the rolls,” Cotton said.

Voter advocacy groups already are mobilizing to support Georgia voters heading into the Dec. 6 Senate runoff. Previously, runoffs were held nine weeks after an election. The new law shortened that to just four weeks, a period that also leaves too little time for new voter registrations.

“These types of tactics aim to suppress votes,” Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, said in a statement. “But Georgians have shown that they are ready and willing to navigate tough voting environments in order to make their voices heard.”

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