The Brief

If you follow any cat rescue groups online, you know this time of year is rough.

You’ll see messages like these, from local nonprofits like Boyle Heights Cats, Luxe Paws and The Cat’s Meow:

“Fosters Needed Urgently”

“9 times out of 10 your garage, bathroom or basement can save a life.”

“This is an urgent plea for fosters to… help out during the 2 most challenging months of the year.”

The combination of more people taking summer vacations and the height of kitten season — the time of year when cats are most fertile — means organizations are overwhelmed trying to find fosters to care temporarily for rescues, trappers available to catch them and vets able to spay/neuter and vaccinate cats. It’s a difficult time for animal shelters too.

“So if you find kittens, if your neighbor finds kittens, if you find a cat, see what resources you can access or what resources the shelter has, and do your best,” says Dr. Kate Hurley, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis. “That's a great contribution if you can help keep even one cat or kitten out of the shelter so that they can have room for one that has absolutely no other choice.”

L.A.’s ‘community cats’

There are, according to LA Animal Services, about 960,000 “community cats” living throughout the city. These are free-roaming, stray cats that are often described as “feral” or “unsocialized."

(“Community cats” has become the preferred terminology among many animal welfare organizations because some of these cats can be more socialized than others.)

These free-roaming cats are a part of life in any city, but it's easy for populations to get out of control if not managed. Cats reproduce quickly. A female cat can have three litters per year, with the average litter being about four kittens. And cats as young as four months old can get pregnant.

That’s where TNR comes in.

What is TNR?

UC Davis’ Kate Hurley is also a leading authority on “trap, neuter and return” (or TNR) — a practice that is designed to reduce the number of cats on the street over time, help them live healthier lives and be less of a nuisance to their human neighbors.

The process involves cats being trapped (in rectangular wire cages that shut behind the cat when they enter) and taken to a shelter or clinic to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated for infectious diseases. During the process, one of the cats’ ears is “tipped” so they are identifiable as having been fixed after they are returned to their outdoor homes.

The result, Hurley says, are cats that are less likely to fight, spray and roam. It’s also considered a more practical and humane option than trapping and euthanizing cats, but it does have its critics.

Some cities and counties support TNR efforts — by providing traps and spay/neuter appointments or vouchers to cover part of the cost — and some don’t.

The city of L.A. was prohibited from supporting TNR for many years but in 2020 the city council signed off on the “Citywide Cat Program” to help stabilize the population by allowing TNR. It’s been in place since 2022.

Still, even in the places where there is government support, the amount of work that volunteers take on to save cats and do TNR can be daunting.

The cat crusaders

Christopher Askew (L) and Marisol Ramos (R) outside a L.A. business where workers have been feeding about a dozen community cats.

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Monica Bushman / LAist

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On a warm Thursday afternoon in April, around the start of this year’s kitten season, Marisol Ramos of “Boyle Heights Cats” (“Boyle Heights Gatos” on Instagram) was already fielding many more requests for help than she could handle.

“Today I got like seven [requests] in the last three hours from people saying, ‘Help, I need to get this cat fixed.’ And it's just adding up. I have about 600 cats on a list that need to get fixed.”

Ramos’s focus is mainly Boyle Heights, where she lives, and surrounding neighborhoods. She started doing TNR in L.A. in 2021, and has since helped get more than 1,000 cats spayed or neutered.

What’s involved is a lot of communication with cat feeders and potential fosters, early mornings and late nights setting out traps and waiting for them to work, time spent fundraising for supplies and food, and the effort it takes to find spay/neuter appointments and vets that will accept vouchers the city of L.A. offers through the Citywide Cat Program. Then, when cats have been fixed, she’s back 24-48 hours later to pick them up.

Ramos does all this in addition to her day job as a researcher and grant administrator. At first she took on a second job to pay for her TNR work, but has since formed a 501(c)(3) and received a small grant.

She started doing TNR with her family in New York when she was 15 years old.

“We learned about TNR,” Ramos says, “did a community training and certification, and then we would take the subway to the city to get them fixed.”

The ‘front lines’

Now Ramos trains other people to do TNR work. Christopher Askew is one of them. He worked at a cat rescue/sanctuary and while he found that work fulfilling, he says, “it was kind of like being at an Army hospital, way back behind the enemy lines or something … [Doing TNR] is more like being right out in the front lines on the street where there's not enough being done for street cats.”

He lives in downtown L.A. and plans to do trapping there: “Downtown seems like it needs a lot of help and there's not really many people covering it. So hopefully I can maybe help fill that gap.”

Askew joined Ramos out on a call out to a business near railroad tracks, where workers were feeding about a dozen cats, to learn about what it takes to do TNR.

Marisol Ramos with Boyle Heights Cats takes a photo of some community cats she'd been called out to TNR.

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Monica Bushman / LAist

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Ramos had been able to secure three spay/neuter appointments for the next day, so she was there with three traps and wet food to lure the cats in. She’d be back on Saturday to hopefully trap seven more that she’d take to appointments at a spay/neuter clinic on Sunday.

She also spends time finding adopters for kittens and other cats that can’t be returned to where they came from — if, for example, they’re sick and by the time they recover they’ve been away from the streets for too long.

But for all the work involved in doing TNR in L.A., Ramos said the situation in Orange County is much harder.

TNR is designed to reduce the number of cats on the street over time, help them live healthier lives and be less of a nuisance to their human neighbors.

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Monica Bushman / LAist

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In Orange County there isn’t a large animal welfare organization doing TNR or providing low-cost vouchers. The county-run shelter doesn’t provide vouchers either, and stopped its TNR program in 2020.

In June of 2023, a Grand Jury report called on Orange County to reinstate its TNR program, saying that ending the program “increased the rate of euthanasia of cats, especially kittens.”

In a response to LAist, OC Animal Care said they’ve “been advised by counsel that the release of unowned cats into the community is prohibited by law. Since not all municipalities share this same understanding, we continue to monitor litigation processes happening around the state for rulings that may impact the penal code.”

OC Animal Care also faced a threat of legal action over their TNR program by detractors of trap-neuter-return and, more recently, was sued by supporters of TNR, who want the program reinstated. In reference to the litigation, OC Animal Care told LAist: “It is widely acknowledged that TNR plays an important role in animal welfare, and we, like the local community, look forward to clear direction on this issue, whether it be through resolution of the pending litigation or a legislative fix at the state level.”

On the question of whether TNR violates of the section of the California penal code that prohibits animal abandonment, the city of L.A.’s position is that “abandonment laws, defined by intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence leaving an animal behind, do not apply to community cat practices.”

“I've met a lot of folks from Orange County who drive up to Sun Valley to fix the cats because they just couldn't find appointments in Orange County, or help there,” Ramos says. “Or they drive to San Diego, but they try to trap a lot so it's worth their time.”

The cats of Orange County

Meredith Kirby, the volunteer coordinator for OC Community Cats, says, “When we had the shelter as a resource, that was great, because it didn't cost anything.”

Kirby has been with the nonprofit organization since it was founded in 2015. They feed and care for about 25 community cat colonies in North Orange County, which includes doing TNR and providing medical care.

In addition to the volunteer work Kirby does, she also works as a high school ceramics teacher.

In the almost 10 years she’s been with OC Community Cats, Kirby says the situation has gotten much more difficult — largely because the county shelter ended its TNR program, but also because of the shuttering of some low-cost veterinary clinics they used to rely on. There’s also a shortage of veterinarians that has grown worse.

As a result, Kirby says they’re forced to rely on donations and have to find workarounds to get cats fixed outside Orange County.

“Our transport team is a lot of retired people,” mostly women, Kirby says, who “can take 10 to 15 cats up to L.A. in the morning and go pick them up.”

But the shortage of vets is a problem in L.A. too, and across the country.

Not enough vets and vet techs

A kitten named Blizzard, up for adoption at Pasadena Humane on June 24, 2024.

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Monica Bushman

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Hurley with the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis says the shortage of veterinarians didn’t start with the pandemic, but COVID did exacerbate it.

“The fewer vets there are, the harder it is, the more burnout there is, the more vets leave,” Hurley says. “And we're really in a negative cycle, it feels like right now, where the few vets that are standing are really stretched thin.”

That in turn has had an impact on spay/neuter rates.

“Spay/neuter in general took a huge hit during the early days of COVID,” Hurley says. “And it not only hasn't caught up, it hasn't even recovered to the baseline level that it was operating at before COVID in most places, in my experience.”

Chris Ramon, who heads up the Community Cats Program at Pasadena Humane, says another issue is a shortage of veterinary technicians and registered veterinary technicians (or RVTs).

“I have seen some of the most talented surgeons who can do a cat neuter in probably 20 seconds, no exaggeration,” Ramon says. But without a support team of technicians to help with surgery prep, anesthetization and recovery, “that veterinarian who can do a 20 second neuter is now investing 10 or 12 minutes into one case.”

The longer an appointment takes, that means fewer cats overall who can be fixed.

What can you do to help?

Even with the shortage of vets, technicians and the lack of support for TNR in some cities and counties, those who work to care for cats on Southern California streets say there are things you can do to help if you would like to get involved.

For one thing, Ramon says people often overestimate the amount of space that’s needed to foster cats and kittens. Even a bathroom, when you think about it, he says, “is a penthouse compared to a kennel at a shelter.”

There’s also lots of opportunities to volunteer or donate if fostering (or adopting) isn’t something you think will work for you.

Meredith Kirby with OC Community Cats says her number one request to those who’d like to help cats in their community is “be somebody who does something.”

“If you see an animal in need, help it. Don't go on Facebook or Instagram and go, ‘Oh, I saw this cat … Somebody go save it.’ You're somebody,” Kirby says. “If you don't know what to do, reach out to some of the local nonprofits and ask for guidance.”

Editor's note: This post has been updated to add information about the nature of the lawsuits that have been brought against OC Animal Care.

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.

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.

Large waves crash over a damaged wooden seawall on the Long Beach Peninsula, Oct. 12, 2026

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Lucas Brady Woods

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LAist

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Rain had less impact than waves

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.

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.

First of all: Am I registered to vote?

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.

What’s on my 2026 midterm elections ballot?

Depending on which county you live in, your California ballot will present you with a mix of races to vote on.

The races for statewide offices include:

• Governor: Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton face off in a race to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom.
• Insurance commissioner: Wildfires and inflation have thrown California into an insurance crisis. Two Democrats, Ben Allen and Jane Kim, are running to become the insurance industry’s chief regulator.

A number of statewide propositions, including:

• Prop. 1: Should California issue $11.25 billion in general obligation bonds for affordable housing, homebuying opportunities and veterans and homelessness programs?
• Prop 39: Should Californians be required to show ID for in-person and mail-in voting? 
• Prop 40:Should California tax the wealth of billionaires to fund health care services?

Local measures and races 

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.

How do I return my ballot when I’ve completed it?

Drop off your ballot in a secure ballot drop box

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.

Return your ballot through the Postal Service 

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.

Drop off your ballot in an open voting location

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.

Do I have to vote by mail?

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.

How do I fix a mistake on my 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.

What if I have problems with my signature?

When you’re done filling out your ballot, you must sign the envelope. But two big mistakes people make with their signatures are:

• Forgetting to sign their ballot entirely.
• Making a signature that doesn’t match the signature they made when they registered to vote.

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.

What if I just don’t know my ‘correct’ signature I’m registered to vote with?

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.

I already mailed my ballot, but now I’m paranoid about my signature. What if I messed it up?

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.

I made a mistake on my ballot. How do I fix it?

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 …

What if I just want a new ballot?

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:

• Call your county elections office and ask them to cancel that ballot and issue a new one to you.
• Go to your county elections office with your spoiled ballot during business hours and vote right there at the counter.
• Take advantage of the early voting options available in many counties.
• Go to a voting site on Election Day, Nov. 3, turn in your spoiled ballot there and get a new ballot.

You can also do this if you’ve accidentally damaged your ballot in some way (coffee spills happen).

I think I put the wrong date on my envelope

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.

What if I use assistive technology to complete forms?

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.

How can I make sure my mail-in ballot gets there on time? 

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.

A few other common ballot mistakes to watch out for …

Make sure you’re filling out and signing the ballot and envelope with your name on it:

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.

Make sure you use a black or blue pen:

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.)

Don’t mail an empty envelope:

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.

Don’t bother with a stamp:

Your ballot envelope is postage-paid. You don’t need it.

My ballot is missing or hasn’t arrived. What should I do?

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:

Check that you’re actually registered to vote — and to the right address

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’re registered to the wrong address, you can update it before Oct. 19 

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 your voter registration address was correct but your ballot never showed up, you still have options

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.

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.

A regular Monday 

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.”

A student walks through San Diego City College in downtown San Diego on Oct. 9, 2026.

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Adriana Heldiz

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CalMatters

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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.

‘Without us knowing or without any previous approval’

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.