California remains locked in a legal fight with the Trump administration over the president’s push to impose new restrictions on universal mail-in voting. The dispute has left some voters wondering whether mail ballots will even be an option for the November 3 election, and if so, whether it’s still safe to use one.

The short answer from election officials: yes and yes. Mail voting will remain available this year, and it remains a secure and generally reliable method of casting a ballot. Still, county registrars are encouraging voters not to wait until the deadline to return their ballots, given the uncertainty swirling around the U.S. Postal Service’s role in the process.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether President Trump can direct the Postal Service to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. Trump has proposed creating a federal database of registered voters that the Postal Service would use to verify that mail ballots are delivered only to eligible U.S. citizens. Under his plan, the Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t share that voter information.

The legal battle, which has dragged on for months, has left voters — and even some election officials — confused, something voting rights advocates say may be the point.

Despite the uncertainty, California election officials insist the state is prepared to run its elections smoothly no matter how the Supreme Court rules. County registrars are monitoring the litigation closely, but they are also moving forward with plans to mail ballots as usual ahead of the October 5 deadline. State and local officials are encouraging voters worried about postal delays to vote early and take advantage of California’s other options, including official drop boxes and in-person voting centers.

“As we do in every election, we have contingency plans and backup plans in place,” said Tricia Webber, Santa Cruz County’s clerk and registrar of voters and president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.

Some counties, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, are looking into setting up temporary voting centers where residents could request and drop off ballots in person. In Santa Cruz County, Webber said her office is working on plans to send its mobile voting unit around the county to give residents another way to cast a ballot.

“Until there’s an answer,” Webber said, referring to the pending court ruling, “California counties are going to continue to operate business as usual.”

WHAT TRUMP WANTS THE POSTAL SERVICE TO DO

In March, Trump signed an executive order aiming to give the federal government control over who receives mail ballots. Within days, more than 20 Democratic attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, sued the administration, arguing the Constitution gives only Congress and state governments authority over election administration.

Federal district and appellate courts sided with the Democratic-led states, upholding a preliminary injunction that bars the Postal Service from carrying out any part of the plan while the lawsuit continues.

The core legal questions remain unresolved. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to keep planning how it would carry out the executive order, prompting Democratic-led states to file a new legal challenge against the Postal Service’s implementation plans.

The Postal Service’s proposal, finalized in August, would create a system to track each voter’s ballot using a unique barcode and cross-reference it against a database of eligible registered voters.

While some states worry they may need to reprint ballot envelopes to comply, Webber said the vast majority of California counties already use envelopes that meet the requirements.

The federal government does not currently maintain a comprehensive list of all eligible registered voters and would need states to submit voter information to a federal mail ballot portal that has not yet been built.

It appears unlikely that portal will be ready in time for the 2026 midterms. According to the office of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Postal Service employee who filed a whistleblower complaint said the rollout has been rushed, risky and disorganized because of an unrealistic timeline.

“In an attempt to meet impossible deadlines, the United States Postal Service has eliminated standard and necessary testing, creating a substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,'” Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote in a late-August letter to Postmaster General David Steiner.

In June, the postmaster general told a congressional committee that the Postal Service would withhold mail ballots in states that refuse to share basic voter information, including names, addresses and each ballot’s unique barcode.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s top elections official, has not said whether California would comply with the proposed voter information requirement.

“California election officials will continue to do everything in their power to ensure that every eligible California voter has the right to cast their ballot by mail and that vote is counted,” her office said.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Weber and five other Democratic secretaries of state for refusing to turn over unredacted voter files containing far more sensitive personal information than what the Postal Service rule requires. A federal judge in Southern California dismissed that case in January.

UNCERTAINTY COULD DRIVE MORE VOTERS TO CAST BALLOTS EARLY

In an unexpected twist, concerns about postal reliability may end up accomplishing something election officials and voting advocates have long struggled to achieve: getting more Californians to vote early.

That marks a shift from the run-up to June’s primary, when nervous Democrats urged voters to hold off casting ballots for governor until the last possible moment. Now, social media feeds are filled with posts urging people to vote early and use official drop boxes rather than rely on the mail.

“This whole thing could backfire,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “What you’re seeing now on social media, in response to this legal drama and confusion, is a lot of people encouraging their friends to vote early — and that’s exactly the message we’ve been pushing all along.”

Early voting helps county election workers tabulate results faster on election night, allowing news organizations such as the Associated Press to call races sooner. Because mailed ballots take the longest to process, returning them several days ahead of the deadline gives election workers more time to remove ballots from envelopes and prepare them for counting before Election Day itself.

“Fortunately, we give voters a lot of options here, and that’s really going to benefit California,” Alexander said. “Other states don’t have as strong a system offering as many alternatives and pathways for voters to exercise their right to vote.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Mail-In Voting Rules Uncertain? Here’s How Californians Can Prepare to Vote in November appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The short answer, according to state and county election officials: Yes, voters can still cast ballots by mail, and the process remains safe and dependable. Still, officials are urging Californians not to wait, encouraging early submission ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

At the center of the confusion is a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision that could determine whether President Trump can direct the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail ballots before the midterms. Trump has proposed creating a federal database of registered voters that the Postal Service would use to verify eligibility before delivering ballots. Under his plan, the agency could refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t share voter data.

The legal fight has dragged on for months, leaving many voters — and even some election officials — confused about what to expect. Voting rights advocates say that confusion may be intentional.

Despite the uncertainty, California election officials insist the state is ready to run its election smoothly no matter how the courts rule. County registrars are tracking the litigation closely, but they’re also moving ahead with plans to mail ballots by the state’s Oct. 5 deadline. Officials are encouraging residents to prepare early and consider alternatives to the mail, such as ballot drop boxes and in-person voting locations, if they have concerns about postal delivery.

“Like we do for all of our elections, we have contingency plans or disaster plans put into place,” said Tricia Webber, Santa Cruz County’s clerk and registrar of voters, who also leads the California Association of County Election Officials.

Some counties — including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles — are looking into setting up temporary voting stations where residents could request and turn in ballots on the spot. In Santa Cruz County, Webber said officials are also considering deploying their mobile voting unit to give residents another way to cast a ballot.

“Until there’s an answer,” Webber said, referring to the pending Supreme Court decision, “California counties are doing business as usual.”

**What Trump wants USPS to do**

The controversy dates back to March, when Trump signed an executive order attempting to give the federal government oversight of who receives mail ballots. More than 20 Democratic attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, quickly sued, arguing the Constitution grants election authority to states and Congress — not the executive branch.

Lower federal courts sided with the Democratic-led states, issuing a temporary injunction that has so far blocked the Postal Service from acting on the president’s directive. But the broader legal questions remain unsettled. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue developing its implementation plan, prompting Democratic states to file a new round of legal challenges.

The Postal Service’s finalized proposal, released in August, calls for tracking each mailed ballot using a unique barcode that would be checked against a database of eligible voters.

While some states worry they may need to redesign ballot envelopes if the rule survives legal challenges, Webber said most California counties already use compliant envelopes.

A major hurdle remains: the federal government doesn’t currently maintain a complete list of eligible voters and would depend on states voluntarily submitting data to a so-called “federal ballot mail portal” that hasn’t yet been built.

Whether that system could even be operational in time for this year’s midterms is in question. According to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office, a Postal Service whistleblower described the rollout as rushed and warned that skipped testing procedures could lead to a “catastrophic failure” capable of disrupting the midterm elections.

“In an effort to meet impossible deadlines, USPS has eliminated standard and needed testing, thereby creating substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,'” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner in late August.

Steiner told a congressional committee in June that the Postal Service intends to withhold ballots in states that refuse to share basic voter information — including names, addresses and ballot barcodes.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s top elections official, has not indicated whether California would comply with such a request.

“California’s elections officials will continue to do everything within our power to ensure that every eligible California voter has the right to cast a mail ballot and have that vote count,” Weber said.

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department sued Weber and five other Democratic secretaries of state after they declined to hand over unredacted voter files — information far more sensitive than what the Postal Service rule would require. A federal judge in Southern California dismissed that lawsuit in January.

**Confusion could push more voters to act early**

In an unexpected twist, anxiety over the Postal Service’s reliability may accomplish something election officials have long hoped for: convincing more Californians to vote earlier rather than waiting until the final days.

That marks a shift from the run-up to June’s primary, when nervous Democratic voters were urged to hold off on choosing a gubernatorial candidate until the last possible moment. Now, social media is filled with posts encouraging people to vote as soon as possible and to rely on drop boxes instead of the mail.

“This whole play may backfire,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “What you’re seeing now on social media in response to this court drama and this confusion are lots of people urging their friends to vote early — and that’s exactly what we’ve been saying.”

Earlier voting helps county election workers process ballots more quickly on election night, which in turn allows outlets like The Associated Press to call races sooner. Because ballots that arrive by mail take longer to process than those dropped off in person, submitting them several days before the deadline gives election workers a head start on removing ballots from envelopes and preparing them for tabulation.

“Fortunately, we give voters lots of options, and that’s really going to work to California’s benefit,” Alexander said. “Other states do not have the kind of robust process that creates lots of redundancies and avenues for voters to vote.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Mail-In Voting Rules Still Unclear: How Californians Can Get Ready for November Election appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Adding to the complexity this cycle is confusion swirling around mail-in voting, driven largely by President Donald Trump’s ongoing push to limit the practice — even though he himself has used mail ballots in the past. A sweeping executive order Trump issued in March directed the U.S. Postal Service to adopt new requirements: states would need to hand over lists of eligible mail voters, redesign ballot return envelopes to meet postal specifications, and add new tracking barcodes. Under the order, voters not listed in a new federal database the administration wants to establish — or those in states that refuse to comply — could be cut off from receiving their ballots through the mail.

California didn’t wait around. Joining forces with roughly two dozen other states, it filed suit to block the new rules and preserve its authority over how elections are run within its borders. Last week, a federal district court sided with the states, issuing a preliminary injunction that keeps the rules from taking effect before or during the November election.

That victory proved short-lived in terms of legal peace, however. On Sunday, the Trump administration filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the injunction — the second such appeal to the high court in less than a week.

Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t hold back in response, posting on social media that the latest appeal amounted to “weakness from a failed president masquerading as strength.”

The back-and-forth in the courts, paired with a troubling whistleblower complaint that has surfaced in recent weeks, has left officials in several states uncertain about how to proceed as mail ballots begin going out. North Carolina, for instance, already mailed its absentee ballots last week despite the unresolved legal fight.

Given all this uncertainty, Southern California voters may want to take extra care reviewing their ballots well ahead of time. CalMatters has published a voter guide with quizzes on the various propositions, including a new one focused on the insurance commissioner’s race, along with candidate interviews and other voting resources for anyone looking to get up to speed before casting a vote.

In other statehouse news, lawmakers have sent Newsom two bills aimed at addressing the lingering effects of smoke damage from major wildfires — an issue that has left many Los Angeles County residents unable to return home more than a year after last year’s deadly fires tore through the region. Homeowners whose houses survived the flames have nonetheless been stuck waiting on insurance companies to complete lead and asbestos testing, along with the removal of toxic residue, before they can safely move back in.

One of the two bills would direct the state to establish first-of-their-kind standards for identifying and remediating smoke damage, including testing protocols for lead and asbestos, with a deadline of the end of 2028. The companion bill would require insurance companies to follow those standards once adopted. The two measures are linked — neither can become law without the other.

Jane Lawton Potelle, who heads the advocacy group Eaton Fire Residents United and backed the legislation, said many insurers count on policyholders not understanding their rights. “I want people to know how to protect themselves and stop being afraid,” she said.

Meanwhile, tension is building between Newsom’s administration and the state’s largest public employee union. SEIU Local 1000 announced Monday it will hold a strike authorization vote as negotiations continue over its next contract with the state. Union president Anica Walls called it a “historic step,” saying a “yes” vote would send state leaders a clear signal that members are prepared to walk off the job if necessary.

At the heart of the dispute are wages and Newsom’s requirement that state employees report to physical offices at least four days a week — a mandate that has frustrated many workers who had grown accustomed to remote work flexibility. A strike authorization vote doesn’t guarantee a walkout will actually happen. Local 1000, which represents about 100,000 state workers, came closest to striking a decade ago in 2016, but reached a last-minute agreement with then-Gov. Jerry Brown before members hit the picket lines.

Elsewhere, a story out of rural Northern California is drawing attention to a long-standing gap in the state’s long-term care system. Only 15 of California’s 58 counties currently allow Medi-Cal to cover assisted living costs — care that helps seniors with everyday tasks like bathing and dressing but doesn’t require full nursing-home-level supervision. Without that coverage, many older adults, especially in rural communities, are forced to choose between expensive nursing homes that do accept Medi-Cal or assisted living facilities located far from their families.

One man in Siskiyou County pushed hard to get his sister into an assisted living facility close to home, and his efforts helped spur the creation of a new pilot program that could offer a model for expanding access elsewhere in the state.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Californians Face Critical Decisions as Election Season Demands Attention appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The VotingMatters series was designed to help voters sort through a primary that includes nine statewide offices, 61 candidates for governor and redrawn congressional districts. Over the month, CalMatters held 17 events with about 30 local partners, drawing more than 600 participants from Vallejo to Riverside.

The events used CalMatters’ 2026 voter guide, videos of gubernatorial candidates answering questions and printed “Choose your next governor” zines to prompt conversations among voters. CalMatters partnerships director Dan Hu traveled roughly 3,000 miles during the effort.

In Southern California, events were held in Montecito, Camarillo, Los Angeles and Riverside. The Riverside gathering brought together as many as six partner organizations, including Mindful Media Makers, which featured its puppet character Panchito in an interview with Hu.

Organizers said the goal was not to tell residents how to vote, but to give them reliable information and a setting where they could discuss issues with neighbors. At several events, attendees watched video clips of leading gubernatorial candidates before discussing what they heard in small groups.

At a Montecito event co-hosted by Noozhawk, Santa Barbara resident Marty Conoley said the candidate videos were more useful to him than televised debates, which he said often became dominated by attacks. He said the videos should be shown on television in prime time without interruption.

Celeste Barber, who also attended the Montecito event, said her table included six strangers who avoided partisan arguments and instead focused on issues. She said that kind of exchange reflected what she believes civic engagement should look like.

The statewide tour also included Central Valley stops in Modesto, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield, where events were held at bars, community colleges and other gathering places. In Modesto, about 100 people attended a program at Contentment Brewing Company, co-hosted by The Modesto Focus, where participants played state and local political trivia before discussing the governor’s race.

Attendees across the events included election workers, business owners and college students preparing to vote in their first midterm election. At the Camarillo event, some participants who had not known one another before the discussion exchanged contact information afterward.

CalMatters also provided materials in Spanish. In Bakersfield, Merced and Modesto, attendees picked up stacks of Spanish-language voter guide zines to share with students, relatives and friends.

The VotingMatters events were organized with local news outlets, nonprofits, churches, county registrar offices, League of Women Voters chapters and the California State Library. In Yolo County, Abridged from PBS KVIE used the series for its first event there as it works to expand local coverage.

CalMatters also made a VotingMatters event kit available for people who wanted to host their own gatherings. Members in Petaluma and Long Beach organized small groups of more than 10 people to review ballots and the voter guide. One Long Beach attendee described the gathering as the kind of community event that democracy should encourage.

CalMatters said VotingMatters will return for the 2026 general election.

Original source: CalMatters

The post VotingMatters Brings CalMatters’ Primary Voter Guide to Communities From Vallejo to Riverside appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.