Sonoma County sends out 200,000 mail-in ballots for June primary election

The 2018 primary election officially got underway this week as thousands of mail-in ballots were sent to Sonoma County voters on Monday, nearly a month before the June 5 election.

Some 75 percent of the 268,000 registered Sonoma County voters requested mail-in ballots this year, said Sonoma County Clerk Bill Rousseau. Most of those ballots will land in mailboxes this week and early next week.

Expect to see a surge in campaign mailers and political ads on television in the coming days as candidates make their case before voters cast their mail-in ballots.

“A lot of campaigns will call the office and want to know about when our vote-by-mails go out,” Rousseau said. “Especially since it’s 75 percent of our voters. So a lot of things are targeted when the mail-ins go out. We should all see a lot more TV ads and things in our mailbox in the next week or two.”

Election workers are closely monitoring the response by voters living in fire-ravaged areas of Sonoma County. A significant number of election mailers sent to homes in the burn zones were returned unopened because residents had not provided an updated mailing address, Rousseau said. Staffers are worried it might result in a lower turnout.

“That’s going to be one of the issues for the fire victims,” he said.

Fire victims planning to rebuild may continue to vote using that address, but the registrar of voters must have a current mailing address on file.

Registered vote-by-mail voters who don’t receive their ballot by the week of May 21 should call or come into the office, Rousseau said.

The last day to register to vote is May 21. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is May 29. All vote-by-mail ballots should be postmarked no later than June 5 - Election Day - or brought to a polling place no later than 8 p.m. that day.

To check your voter registration, or for more information on voting, go to vote.sonoma-county.org or call 707-565-6800.

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @SeaWarren.