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Everything from award contenders to goofy comedies, a smattering of romance, plenty of anti-heroes, even an animated musical documentary constructed entirely of LEGOs — all curated by NPR critics.
Keep reading... for the 25 picks from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to Wicked.
School’s back in session, election season’s heating up, the leaves need raking, and you just want to get out of the house and escape, right?
We’ve got you covered. Everything from award contenders to goofy comedies, a smattering of romance, plenty of anti-heroes, even an animated musical documentary constructed entirely of LEGOs — all curated by NPR critics.
We’ll see you at the movies.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in theaters Sept. 6
Look, who knows if this is gonna work? Plenty of directors have returned to their early films to see what, if any, gold remains to be mined. Sometimes they hit the motherlode (Mad Max: Fury Road), other times the result is a cinematic cave-in (The Matrix Resurrections). Director Tim Burton's recent films have all displayed his trademark darkness, but it's been years since we glimpsed the transgressive, anarchic humor he made his bones on. I'm pulling for him. It's showtime. — Glen Weldon
His Three Daughters, in theaters Sept. 6, on Netflix Sept. 20
The cast sells this one: Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne are each often the best thing about the projects they're in. And here they are together, playing sisters who gather when their father is dying. It might not seem obvious to cast such different performers as family, but there is something about three singular women in the same film that makes a kind of sense. — Linda Holmes
Meanwhile on Earth, in theaters Sept. 13
In this moody, surreal French sci-fi film, a young woman grieves her beloved brother, who disappeared on a space mission three years prior. One night, she receives a message: a mysterious presence says it can return him to Earth... if she does it a small favor. It's the latest from director Jeremy Clapin, whose unforgettable I Lost my Body, about a severed hand's quest to be reunited with its original owner, was nominated for an Oscar in 2020. Nous allons! — Glen Weldon
My Old Ass, in theaters Sept. 13
While hallucinating on mushrooms in her last summer before college, Elliott (Maisy Stella) is visited by her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), blithely offering unsolicited advice: “I know mom can be annoying but be nice to her; hang out with your brothers; and avoid anyone named Chad.” That’s a cue for Percy Hynes White’s endearingly dorky Chad to make his appearance in Megan Park's coming-of-age charmer. — Bob Mondello
All Shall Be Well, in theaters Sept. 20
A darling of the festival circuit, this Hong Kong drama follows Angie and Pat, a lesbian couple in their 60s who've been together for decades. When Pat suddenly dies, her family treats Angie with compassion — at first. Soon, questions over Pat's estate cause a rift that endangers Angie's ability to stay in the apartment they shared. Films tackling the intersection of queerness and aging aren't exactly thick on the ground; early reviews say this one manages to be both sad and life-affirming. — Glen Weldon
A Different Man, in theaters Sept. 20
This brutal psychological drama stars Sebastian Stan as an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic mutation. To widen his casting opportunities, he undergoes facial reconstructive surgery – but when he encounters a fellow performer with the same medical condition (Adam Pearson), he’s forced to reckon with the choice he made. This may be one of the strangest and most challenging things you’ll watch all year, and it’s worth it. — Aisha Harris
The Substance, in theaters Sept. 20
The body horror, the body horror! Coralie Fargeat’s latest film kind of sounds like a mad twist on Severance: Demi Moore is an aerobics star who’s fired from her show for turning 50. She’s offered the chance to inject a substance that will transform her into a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). She must “switch” between her younger and older self every seven days, but – surprise, surprise! – things don’t go exactly as planned. — Aisha Harris
WOLFS, in theaters Sept. 20, on Apple TV+ Sept. 27
George Clooney and Brad Pitt have been making capers together since Ocean's Eleven in 2001. Now, they join up for an action comedy about two sketchy but efficient fixers. The only hangup is that they both work alone, but now they're forced to work together. It's a well-worn setup, and the result will depend on whether they can recapture the affectionate repartee one more time. — Linda Holmes
Megalopolis, in theaters Sept. 27
Look, reportedly this whole production is deeply fraught – you can Google the many reasons yourself. But the mere existence of a brand-new Francis Ford Coppola film in 2024 still has people talking. It’s a decades-long passion project with a stacked cast that includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Talia Shire, and Laurence Fishburne. And its CGI-heavy, time-traveling story looks truly out-there: Coppola reimagines the fall of Rome through the lens of a modern-day New York. — Aisha Harris
The Wild Robot, in theaters Sept. 27
Filmmaker Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon) has been telling interviewers that the computer-generated visuals in this tale of a shipwrecked robot named Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o) who befriends an island’s critters and adopts an orphaned gosling, were inspired by the watercolor backgrounds in Bambi, and by the lush hand-drawn forests of Hayao Miyazaki. The idea was to place the high-tech protagonist of this ecological fable in an emotionally resonant wilderness. — Bob Mondello
Joker: Folie a Deux, in theaters Oct. 4
The original Joker was supposed to be a standalone film, but when it made a billion dollars, and Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix started dreaming about his deranged Arthur Fleck telling jokes and singing onstage, what’s a poor movie studio to do? Phoenix and director Todd Phillips conjured a story involving Fleck’s music therapist, Harley Quinn; Lady Gaga signed on to play her, and here we are. — Bob Mondello
The Platform 2, on Netflix Oct. 4
The Platform, Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s 2019 feature debut, was a nasty piece of work — an grisly anti-capitalist screed in sci-fi/horror clothing. In a tower prison, the residents of the top floors enjoy sumptuous meals served on a vast slab. But as that platform descends at designated intervals down through the tower, the lower residents fight over leftovers. No, it's not subtle, as metaphors go, but I'm eager to see where a sequel takes us. — Glen Weldon
Piece by Piece, in theaters Oct. 11
“Y’know what’d be cool?” asks Pharrell Williams, channeling his “It might seem crazy what I’m ‘bout to say” opening lyric to “Happy” – “is if we told my story with LEGO pieces.” As he is LEGO-ized while saying this in Morgan Neville’s computer-animated documentary and is joined on several new songs by LEGO-ized Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg, it’s hard to disagree.
— Bob Mondello
Saturday Night, in theaters Oct. 11
Jason Reitman jumps back 49 years to revel in the nervous energy of Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Jane Curtin on the eve of the very first broadcast of a little late-night comedy show they’d come up with. Interviews with the surviving principals inform the dramedy’s portrait of the hours leading up to those fateful words “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” on Oct. 11, 1975. — Bob Mondello
Anora, in theaters Oct. 18
The first American film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 13 years, Sean Baker’s comic drama follows New York sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison) as she impulsively elopes with Russian tourist Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), who’s eager to avoid deportation. The magic in their fairytale romance is challenged somewhat when Vanya’s parents swan in to try to get the marriage annulled. — Bob Mondello
Rumours, in theaters Oct. 18
Guy Maddin makes movies (Careful, The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg) that are rich and strange – not necessarily in a crowd-pleasing way, but invariably in a me-pleasing way. He's teaming with brothers Evan and Galen Johnson to write and direct this one, and the plot promises a big swing: World leaders attending the G7 conference get lost in the woods. I was all-in for this movie even BEFORE I found it stars Cate Blanchett and a giant brain. And now that I know that? All-innest! — Glen Weldon
Woman of the Hour, on Netflix Oct. 18
Anna Kendrick's directorial debut (in which she also stars) is based on the story of a serial killer who went on The Dating Game. It's a bizarre and unsettling story to say the least, and it got solid reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Kendrick is a more interesting actress than she's sometimes given credit for, and she may be the same as a director. — Linda Holmes
The Nickel Boys, in theaters Oct. 25
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer winner about a Jim Crow-era reform school (based on Florida’s notorious Dozier School) chronicled the experiences of two Black teenagers — Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) — as they try to survive the horrors and abuse of the school. RaMell Ross’ film will be the opening attraction at the New York Film Festival. — Bob Mondello
A Real Pain, in theaters Nov. 1
Kieran Culkin is fresh off a stunning performance in HBO's Succession, where he could be surprisingly sympathetic for a guy who was basically a sleazeball. Here, he joins Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed, to play cousins who join up for a trip in Poland. These are both actors who are just about always worth your time, and who doesn't love a road trip movie? — Linda Holmes
Here, in theaters Nov. 1
Director Robert Zemeckis never met a technological innovation he didn’t want to play with, from motion capture in Polar Express to digital animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This time, he’s employing generative AI to face-swap and de-age his Forrest Gump stars, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, as they play characters from 18 to 80 in a story that chronicles events on a single plot of land. — Bob Mondello
Emilia Pérez, in theaters Nov. 1, on Netflix Nov. 13
The word out of Cannes earlier this year, where it won the Jury Prize, was that Jacques Audiard’s musical comedy crime film is both exciting and polarizing. At the very least, the logline is compelling: Zoe Saldaña is a lawyer who’s roped into helping a ruthless cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) fake her own death so she can undergo gender affirming surgery. Mentally prepare yourself now for The Discourse to come.
— Aisha Harris
Heretic, in theaters Nov. 15
Two young women, Mormon missionaries, greet a kindly older man who invites them inside his remote home for a sober discussion of the tenets of their faith. But this is an A24 horror film, so things don't stay sober for long. The older man in question is played by a slyly sinister Hugh Grant, and his home is an elaborate maze made to test their faiths. I'm getting Barbarian vibes from the trailer — and it's not like that cardigan Grant's wearing makes things any LESS creepy. Brrrr. — Glen Weldon
Blitz, in theaters Nov. 1, on Apple TV+ Nov. 22
Steve McQueen – that name alone should be enough to warrant attention. The Shame and 12 Years a Slave filmmaker wrote and directed this historical drama, which has been described as an “epic journey” set during World War II. And it stars the always captivating Saoirse Ronan as a woman whose young son goes missing in the English countryside. Sign me up.
— Aisha Harris
Gladiator II, in theaters Nov. 22
Two decades after the events depicted in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Lucius, the little boy (grandson of an emperor) who cheered on Russell Crowe in the Colosseum, has grown up to be Paul Mescal and finds himself in much the same position. Enslaved, he’ll fight not tigers, but a rhinoceros, under the tutelage of power-broker Denzel Washington as he opposes a pair of cruel and capricious young emperors. — Bob Mondello
Wicked, in theaters Nov. 22
Two witches — Galinda (Ariana Grande), bubbly and “popular,” Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), green and fragile — take on a duplicitous wizard (Jeff Goldblum) in this adaptation of the first act of the smash Broadway musical based on Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” It’ll be a long and winding yellow brick road (the second act arrives for Thanksgiving 2025). — Bob Mondello
Copyright 2024 NPR
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California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.
Who qualifies: Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets. Before this change, proving eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits was a complex process that often discouraged eligible students from applying. With the new changes, undergraduate students who are enrolled at least half time qualify by being enrolled in any degree program at a UC, CSU, or community college. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.
California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.
Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets.
“We can’t expect students to learn if they’re hungry, and in California, there is no reason for them to be, whether they’re in kindergarten, high school, or college,” Newsom said in a Friday statement. “You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the food benefits you’re entitled to, and now you don’t have to.”
Those who are enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, at least half time, can apply here. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.
“This is what government is supposed to do: help the people we serve. It is my hope that these changes will continue to make it easier for students to access CalFresh, the largest anti-hunger program in the country,” California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a Friday statement.
EdSource is an independent nonprofit organization that provides analysis on key education issues facing California and the nation. LAist republishes articles from EdSource with permission.
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Tropical storm Rachel’s waves and tides battered seaside homes in Long Beach, Newport Beach and Malibu over the weekend, damaging them to the point that some residents had to evacuate. But heavy rains failed to materialize.
Will flooding continue? On Monday morning, the National Weather Service posted their forecast: “Minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely to continue to through at least Tuesday. Periods of light to moderate rain and a low chance of thunderstorms will persist through Monday with below normal temperatures."
What's next: Beginning Tuesday, warm and dry conditions should return through the end of the week.
Tropical Storm Rachel’s waves and tides battered seaside homes in Long Beach, Newport Beach and Malibu over the weekend, damaging them to the point that some residents had to evacuate. But heavy rains failed to materialize, lessening the potentially disastrous impact.
Federal weather officials suggested Monday that while some flooding may remain, the worst of this weekend’s storm may be over.
“Minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely to continue to through at least Tuesday," said the National Weather Service synopsis posted Monday morning.
“Periods of light to moderate rain and a low chance of thunderstorms will persist through Monday with below normal temperatures,” the synopsis continued.
However, the weather service said warm, dry conditions should return beginning Tuesday and continue through the end of the week.
Tropical Storm Rachel's rains were fairly inconsequential, however. Over the weekend, just over a quarter of an inch of rain (0.29) fell in Long Beach. It barely rained in downtown L.A. (0.07) and Santa Monica (0.02). Just over 2 inches of rain fell at Mount Baldy, according to a National Weather Service post Monday morning.
Meanwhile, at midday on Saturday, winds hit 23 miles per hour at John Wayne Airport in Orange County and 17 miles per hour at the Santa Monica Airport.
Some cities across Southern California declared local emergencies days before this weekend’s winds, tides and waves hit the region.
The city of Malibu declared a local emergency two weeks ago (Sept. 28) to prepare residents for the rain, mudslides, landslides, debris flows, coastal erosion and flooding that the El Niño weather event could bring.
But officials emphasized that while only some of the potential damage materialized over the weekend, El Niño is far from over.
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It’s time to vote in the California 2026 midterm election — which includes your chance to decide who’ll be the state’s next governor. If you’re unsure of how to fill that ballot or what to do if you’ve made a mistake on it, read on to learn how to fill out your ballot when it arrives, how important your signature is and your options if you need to start again with a fresh ballot.
If you make a mistake on your ballot: It’s important to note that each county is slightly different in how they’d prefer you to address a mistake on your ballot, and will often provide specific details about corrections on the ballot itself. If you have a specific question about your ballot that isn’t answered here, you can always contact your local registrar of voters for advice and instructions.
The importance of your signature: When you’re done filling out your ballot, you must sign the envelope. Avoid two big mistakes people make with their signatures: remember to sign your ballot entirely and that your signature matches the one you had when you registered to vote. If you’re really worried about the signature on your envelope not matching the signature you’re registered to vote with, there are two good solutions. One: If it’s on or before Oct. 19, you can reregister to vote with your current signature, to be sure that the state now has your most recent one on file. If you are reregistering after Oct. 19, you’d need to complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and request your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location. Another soultion: Go vote in person, if you’re able.
It’s time to vote in the California 2026 midterm election — which includes your chance to decide who’ll be the state’s next governor.
If you’re a registered California voter, your ballot is on its way in the next few days, if it hasn’t already arrived. Your last day to vote will be Election Day itself, Nov. 3.
But what if you’re unsure of how to fill that ballot out according to how you want to vote? Or what to do if you’ve made a mistake on it?
Read on to learn how to fill out your ballot when it arrives, how important your signature is, and your options if you need to start again with a fresh ballot.
The official deadline to register online to vote is Monday, Oct. 19.
So if you’re unsure whether you’re already registered to vote or can’t remember which party preference you already have, check your voter registration details ASAP.
Remember, if you’ve changed your name or want to change the political party choice you previously registered to vote with, or you’ve moved address, you’ll need to re-register.
Making sure you’re registered — and to the right address — is crucial for getting your ballot on time.
And if you miss the deadline to register, don’t panic: That’s the last day to do it online. After Oct. 19, you can still complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and receive your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location, all the way up to 8 p.m. on Election Day itself.
Depending on which county you live in, your California ballot will present you with a mix of races to vote on.
These will depend on your county or district. See the LAist Voter Guide for more information on what’s on your ballot this election season.
These drop boxes open by Oct. 5, and once submitted, your ballot will be taken straight to your local county elections office.
Some elections officials strongly recommend using these drop boxes over using USPS. “We’re not really encouraging people to use the USPS to get their ballot here,” said Evelyn Mendez, Sonoma County’s registrar of voters.
Instead, Mendez tells voters to use county collection boxes because they skip the Postal Service altogether.
The return postage is already paid for you. Keep in mind that the Postal Service must postmark your ballot envelope by the end of Election Day for your vote to count — and the last collection at many mailboxes is 5 p.m.
However, in the last two statewide elections, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Attorney General Rob Bonta urged any voters planning to use USPS to mail in their ballots at least a week before Election Day — to account for changes in the way USPS is collected and postmarked in many areas.
And if you’re mailing your midterm ballot on Election Day itself, Weber’s office is recommending you “get a hand-stamped postmark from a postal employee inside a United States Post Office” rather than simply dropping it in a USPS collection box.
The first vote centers open Oct. 24 in certain counties, with more early voting locations opening Oct. 31.
This method is the top recommendation of Kim Alexander, president and founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. The option, known as “Sign, Scan and Go” voting, allows voters to bring their mail ballot to a vote center and sign a roster under penalty of perjury — just as you would for in-person voting.
Alexander said this approach sidesteps time-intensive signature verification — since your signature only goes on your ballot’s envelope, and the envelope isn’t necessary with Sign, Scan and Go — and late-arrival ballot rejections.
No. If you’re registered to vote, you’ll be receiving a mail-in ballot by default for the 2026 midterms, without requesting it. But voting by mail is still just one option that’s open to you.
You can still vote in person, either at an early voting location before Election Day or on Election Day, Nov. 3, itself. Early voting locations will open starting Oct. 24.
It’s important to note that each county is slightly different in how they’d prefer you to address a mistake on your ballot, and will often provide specific details about corrections on the ballot itself. If you have a specific question about your ballot that isn’t answered here, you can always contact your local registrar of voters for advice and instructions.
When you’re done filling out your ballot, you must sign the envelope. But two big mistakes people make with their signatures are:
Why wouldn’t your signature match the one on file? If you registered to vote at a young age, maybe your signature has changed over time. Or perhaps you registered to vote at the DMV and provided your signature on a screen with a stylus, which doesn’t quite replicate how you’d make your signature with a pen on paper.
If you registered this way, one simple way to avoid any signature problems is to take a quick glance at the signature that’s on your driver’s license or state ID — because that’s the one you want your ballot signature to match.
Even if you didn’t register at the DMV, that signature on your most recent license or state ID is still very likely the one to emulate. That’s because when you register to vote online, your county elections office electronically requests a copy of the signature the DMV currently has for you, and this information is regularly updated.
To further set your mind at rest, know that California isn’t an “exact match” state, and doesn’t demand voters’ signatures 100% replicate the signature that’s on file.
If you’re really worried about the signature on your envelope not matching the signature you’re registered to vote with, there are two good solutions.
One: If it’s on or before Oct. 19, you can re-register to vote with your current signature, to be sure that the state now has your most recent one on file. If you are re-registering after Oct. 19, you’d need to complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and request your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location.
In 2021, Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, told us there’s another solution if you’re worried about your signature: Go vote in person, if you’re able.
That’s because the signature goes only on your ballot’s envelope — and if you’re voting in person, there’s no envelope, because that ballot then goes straight into the ballot box without needing that envelope at all.
“So if you want that satisfaction of seeing your ballot drop in the box and know that it’s not going to get held up because of some signature issue, you can go and vote in person,” said Alexander.
Rest assured: There’s a whole system in place to help you correct your mistake.
If your county’s election office detects a signature mismatch on your ballot, they’ll reach out to you via mail to verify and work with you to correct it, so that your ballot can be counted after all. It’s called “curing” a ballot.
This system is also applied when it looks like a member of a voter’s family might have signed their ballot, instead of the voter. This happens a surprising amount when one household has several voters who all receive a ballot in the mail.
One way to get peace of mind: Sign up to track your ballot, and you’ll find out about any issues with your ballot or your signature quickly.
First, don’t panic. People make mistakes on ballots and find good ways to correct them.
Counties give different directions to voters about what to do if they make a mistake (remember: Read the instructions!), but you can usually simply X out the choice you didn’t intend.
The job of county elections officials — once they’ve verified your signature — is to make sure your ballot can be read correctly. If that means that your corrections on your ballot have resulted in readability issues, officials working in teams of two will actually remake it for you according to the intent you’ve signaled with your corrections.
Some counties, like Alameda, ask that you actually contact them first if you make a serious mistake — including voting for the wrong candidate — so they can send you a replacement ballot. So, wherever you live, it’s a good idea to check with your local elections office first to see what they recommend if you made a mistake.
And remember, there’s always this option …
If you’ve made a big mistake on your ballot — too big to fix — your best plan of action may be to focus on getting a new one. And that’s totally OK. You can:
You can also do this if you’ve accidentally damaged your ballot in some way (coffee spills happen).
First off, that date should be the date you signed your envelope — not your date of birth.
But if you’re worried you messed up the date, don’t worry. Elections officials say that the date they’re really looking for is the date that the ballot is postmarked, to make sure it was submitted on time.
Election officials will only truly scrutinize the date you’ve written if they receive your ballot after Election Day.
“Like maybe you mailed it Monday before Election Day,” John Gardner, assistant registrar of voters for Solano County, told us in 2020. “That’s when we have to start looking at postmarks on the ballot, or date that the voter signed the envelope, to determine if we can count the ballot or not.”
And if you haven’t mailed your envelope yet, it’s an easy fix: Just clearly cross out the incorrect date on the envelope and write in the correct one above it.
Getting physical assistance with filling out your ballot from someone you trust is always fine, whether you’re voting at home or at a voting site.
You just need to make sure your signature is your own and matches the one you’re registered to vote with.
Disabled voters can also choose to use the Remote Accessible Vote-by-Mail system to vote privately and independently at home, using their usual assistive device on their home computer to fill out the ballot on their screen and then print and mail it.
Every voting location in California is also equipped with an accessible voting unit. Here, voters with blindness or low vision or who have a disability that limits their dexterity, will be able to use the assistive device of their choice that allows them to vote privately and independently.
Remember, one big reason that ballots get disqualified in elections is that voters mail them too late: either too late on Election Day itself (after U.S. Postal Service mailboxes have already been collected), or after Election Day.
To be counted in this election, your ballot must be postmarked on Election Day, Nov. 3, at the latest. Your ballot has seven days to reach your county elections office.
So in this election, it’s as crucial as ever to make sure you have a plan for voting on time. And if you’re not voting in person, that means making sure you get your ballot into a USPS mailbox or into a secure voting drop box, at a polling location or your county elections office, by the time polls close on Nov. 3.
Read more about why California election officials are urging voters to make sure their ballot arrives on time — and why they’re urging caution around using USPS too close to Election Day.
It’s common to see partners or roommates accidentally mix up their ballots. So make sure you’re signing the document that bears your name.
It reads better, and it doesn’t slow workers down when they have to check to see what voter intent was. (Don’t use a felt-tip or a Sharpie that bleeds through the paper and marks other pages on your ballot.)
It does happen. Keeping your envelope and your ballot together in your home might be a helpful way of avoiding this problem. And of course, when you’re ready to mail your ballot, make sure it’s actually inside the envelope before you seal it.
Your ballot envelope is postage-paid. You don’t need it.
If you’re reading this and you’re worried that your ballot hasn’t arrived yet, make sure you’re not worrying too early, as the deadline for counties to start sending out ballots is only Oct. 5.
But if it gets to late October and your ballot still hasn’t materialized, don’t panic: You have options. Here’s what to do:
Input your details on the secretary of state’s voter status page to check your registration status. This will show whether you’re actually registered to vote, and to which address. It should also show whether your ballot was mailed out.
You can also use the Where’s My Ballot? tool to check whether your ballot has been sent.
If you update your voter registration and address using the secretary of state’s voter status page before the Oct. 19 deadline to register online, your county will cancel the ballot that went to your old address and send you a new one.
And if it turns out your ballot was missing because your voter registration wasn’t updated, don’t feel bad — people move all the time and forget to update their registrations accordingly.
The California Voter Foundation’s Alexander confirmed to KQED in 2021 that updating your address at the post office doesn’t, in fact, update your voter registration. The DMV, on the other hand, will update your voter registration details if you update your address with them.
If it’s more than six days before Election Day, you can call your county elections office and ask them to send a new ballot. Find your county elections office in our contact list (below).
Your county elections office won’t mail you a ballot six days or less before Election Day, because it can’t be sure it’ll reach you in time. So if you’re trying to get a ballot in the immediate run-up to Election Day, go to your county elections office in person and request one at the counter.
From Oct. 5, your county elections office will be open for early voting through Nov. 3, so you could also go there in person during opening hours and vote right there at the counter. More early voting locations will be opening throughout October.
And remember, if you’re not actually registered to vote, you always have the option of same-day voter registration, also known as conditional voter registration, at a voting location, where you can then fill out and submit your ballot, too.
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California community colleges are trying to discourage immigration enforcement on campuses, but they can’t do much to bar ICE agents from public spaces.
ICE arrests: Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges. Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists. Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building. Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo.
Public areas: State laws require colleges to notify students if immigration enforcement agents are on campus and agents must present a warrant before entering a “nonpublic” area in a school, such as a classroom or office building. But parking lots, quads and many other outdoor spaces are considered public.
Read on... for more on how community colleges are responding.
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges.
Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists.
Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building.
Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo.
College presidents say they’re doing everything in their power to keep students safe and prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus. But they admit that they have limited power in these situations.
“If ICE agents want to come and walk in the middle of campus, they can do that,” said Kevin Walthers, the president of Allan Hancock College.
State laws require colleges to notify students if immigration enforcement agents are on campus and agents must present a warrant before entering a "nonpublic” area in a school, such as a classroom or office building. But parking lots, quads and many other outdoor spaces are considered public.
By the time Walthers learned ICE agents had arrived at the campus parking lot, they were gone — the arrest happened in a matter of minutes. He said he never received a warrant and was only able to issue a notification to students and faculty after the arrest. The same was true in San Diego, said district Chancellor Gregory Smith.
President Donald Trump rescinded a longstanding policy that prevented immigration enforcement in “sensitive” locations, such as schools. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which oversees the state’s 116 colleges, has been outspoken about protecting students without legal status and offered guidance to schools on dealing with immigration agents. Attorney General Rob Bonta released his own, more detailed guide last month.
Chandler Rebel, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, said “ICE does not target schools” and denied arresting anyone on the Allan Hancock campus, despite witness testimony and photographs. Rebel did not respond to questions about the officer who chased a San Diego City College student on campus.
After their interactions with immigration agents, Santa Barbara and San Diego city colleges put up or are in the process of installing signs in parking lots, sidewalks or at the entrances to classrooms and buildings, telling agents they need approval to enter.
In practice, these messages may not prevent immigration agents from coming onto their campuses, college presidents say. “It's kind of our district putting every effort that we can think of, and hopefully it is a deterrent,” Smith said.
Last Monday morning, Mayrin, 18, said she was sitting in the passenger seat while her father drove her to Allan Hancock College, where she had statistics class that day. As they drove by the Olive Garden just outside of campus, she said she saw a large black car follow them down the road.
Mayrin and her father parked in the campus lot, she said, where a masked man approached the window and asked for their identification. CalMatters agreed to withhold her full name because she fears drawing attention to her family’s legal status.
“I was calling people. I was crying. It was a mix of emotions, mostly just worried about my dad,” she said. Maryrin gave the officer her state ID and told him that she’s a U.S. citizen. Her father, who immigrated from Mexico and has lived in the U.S. for about two decades, did not have identification on him and the officer pulled him into his car, she said.
Mayrin spent the next 20 minutes alone in her father’s car, crying and calling family, before college staff, including campus police officers and the dean of counseling, brought her into a conference room to ask what happened and provide support.
Mayrin’s father was one of at least 17 people who were arrested last Monday by immigration enforcement agents in the Santa Maria area, said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat, in an emailed statement. “Mass enforcement sweeps like this are designed to send a message of fear and intimidation – one straight from President Trump.”
The largely Latino towns in California's Central Coast region, which include Santa Maria, have experienced waves of immigration enforcement since Trump took office.
In April, Walthers said the college’s police chief had a meeting with other local police chiefs, the FBI and ICE officers who oversee the Central Coast. The college’s police chief asked immigration officials to provide advance notice before coming on campus. “The response was that ICE would not be coming to campus,” Walthers said. In retrospect, he said he wished the agreement was more formal.
After the arrest last week, Walthers said he got in touch with a federal immigration officer in Los Angeles and said he felt “optimistic” after the conversation that it wouldn’t happen again.
In December, a local organization that advocates for immigrants, 805 UndocuFund, alerted Santa Barbara City College officials that ICE agents were at a campus parking lot and appeared to be using it as a staging area, according to Jordan Killebrew, the executive director of public affairs for the college.
Killebrew said agents were “occupying our parking lots without us knowing or without any previous approval.”
The college has since signed an agreement with 805 UndocuFund to help alert the college of the presence of federal law enforcement agents. The group will also provide college students and staff with resources and referrals including legal, financial, mental health and emergency support services for immigration-related matters.
Killebrew said the college spent about $1,200 on 12 signs, which say its campuses “may not be used for civil immigration enforcement staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases.”
The San Diego college district was already in the process of putting up similar signs when ICE appeared on campus last month. District spokesperson Jack Beresford said the four-college district spent $71,000 on 68 signs, including the cost of the labor to install them. The district also created a new policy requiring any entity, including law enforcement, to get prior approval before conducting “official business” on campus.
“We don't let a bank just come and set up a booth,” said Smith, the chancellor of the San Diego district. He said immigration enforcement agents would need approval before conducting their business, including arrests.
Whether the policy will actually work is less clear. “By the time I know that they're here and get down there to tell them they're not allowed to be here, they're going to be gone,” Smith said. “What I'm hoping that we have set up with this is a legal argument that it's an illegal seizure, the same as if they just broke into somebody's home.”
The policy has never been tested in court. He said he hopes it never gets there.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
