UC Merced’s polling station will be open Nov. 6 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Alpine Room.
This year, the on-campus polling station features a centralized satellite voting, which means anyone from any Merced County voting precinct can get his or her specific ballot at the on-campus site and vote.
In previous years, while anyone registered to vote in Merced County could use the campus polling station, if you were not part of the UC Merced voting precinct, you’d cast a provisional ballot.
“That is an amazing thing to have on campus,” said Community Relations Representative Miguel Lopez. “That means that if I was registered to vote in, say, the Bear Creek precinct, I could go to the centralized satellite voting station, have them pull up my precinct ballot and vote on the races affecting my neighborhood.”
If you live outside Merced County or have had very recent changes in your voter information — a change of name or address, for instance — you will likely get a provisional ballot at the on-campus polling site.
By-mail voters from Merced County can drop off their mail-in ballots at the on-campus site.
If you are a by-mail voter from a different county, you can drop off your ballots on campus, but they might not reach your home county within 72 hours as required by law. It is better to mail them directly in a couple days early or drop them right at the post office so they are postmarked on Election Day, Lopez said.
“Just make sure it’ll arrive within 72 hours after Election Day,” he said.
Six students will be among the poll workers at this year’s campus polling station.
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 22, and you can register via registration card or online at https://registertovote.ca.gov/ .
You have until Oct. 27 to request ballots by mail.
For more information, contact the Merced County Registrar of Voters at 209-385-7541, or stop by the office at 2222 M St., Room 14, Merced.
