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LA County Will Mail A Ballot To All 5.4 Million Registered Voters For The November Election
L.A. County Supervisors today voted 5-0 to send a mail-in ballot to every registered voter in the county ahead of the presidential election in November.
The motion was co-authored by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl. It requires the county registrar to print and send ballots to all 5.4 million L.A. voters in time for the general election -- addressing the problem of long voting lines and the threat of coronavirus contagion.
“I don’t want people to have to make a choice between their health and their right to vote,” Hahn said, adding the cost estimate is in the neighborhood of $9 million.
The county was already considering expanding voting by mail. Frustrating wait times and snaking queues at many of the new vote centers on March 3 -- particularly downtown and on college campuses -- prompted the Supervisors to order Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan to look into the problems and study expanding absentee voting. Logan submitted his report late on Monday, as the pandemic brings an added urgency to keep voters safe.
“It looks very likely the entire state will move to this model, or a similar model,” Logan said.
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