Did you know that in the November 2020 Election, the ballots mailed to registered voters in Tehama County did not work in the scanning machine? Apparently a team of individuals re-created all of the Tehama County ballots so they could be run through the machine and counted.
Issues like this are concerning. Our local elections clerk doesn’t appear to think election fraud is a significant enough issue – but it is to me.
Ballots will be sent out starting May 9 to every registered “active” voter. It’s time to analyze the candidates and issues. I’ll be sharing my decisions soon – but I want to start making decisions about HOW I will vote now.
The Election Integrity Project of California (EIP-CA) has been sharing some tips on how to vote safely. You can find their articles below. Some of the things that stuck out to me are listed below – but here are some tips to vote safe based on those issues:
- Verify your voter registration
- Vote In Person at your assigned poling location – Take Your Mail In Ballot!
- Surrender the Vote by Mail ballot you were sent – write SURRENDERED on it and tear it in half. (If you do not have your ballot to surrender or you go to the wrong polling location, you will be required to vote provisionally. These ballots are put in an envelope and held until a decision can be made about whether the person is an eligible voter.)
California SOS – Voting in Person (How It Works)
ISSUES OF CONCERN:
- If you are registered to vote (even if you haven’t been active in recent elections), you can still vote! Check your registration and go to the polls.
- When you return your ballot in an envelope with your name and address clearly visible, you are, in effect, waiving your right to a secret ballot, as you, the voter, are clearly identifiable. You are also subjecting your ballot to innumerable opportunities for potential manipulation as it passes through hundreds of hands of postal workers, seasonal elections officials, ballot traffickers and signature verifiers.
- Even after the ballot is removed from the identifying envelope, it is subjected to intense inspection and potential duplication or adjudication before it finally can be tabulated. It takes DAYS before your ballot—potentially transformed in some way—is finally fully “processed”.
- After vote by mail ballots are extracted from their envelopes, they are carefully inspected—for damage (torn or mangled by handlers, marked incorrectly, stray marks, erasure, food or drink spills, printer defects, Remote Access ballots which are ballots that have been submitted via email – yep, you read that right, they allow that). These ballots are “re-made” by election officials.
Vote Safe #1 – “Everybody” Gets a Ballot—So What Now?
Vote Safe #2 – Weighing Your Voter Options
Vote Safe #3 – Damaged Ballots—You’ll Never Know
Vote Safe #4 – How To Vote in Person
Vote Safe #5 – What to do if…
Vote Safe # 6 – It’s only the primaries…
Vote Safe #7 – 3 warnings: ballot tracking, redistributing & the complex senate race
Vote Safe #8 – Citizen observers – take some time to observe the polls!
VOTING IN TEHAMA COUNTY
Check your voter registration: Online Voter Registration | California Secretary of State
Track your ballot: https://california.ballottrax.net/voter/
Tehama County Elections Info: Elections – Tehama County
Tehama Citizens for Freedom 
2 thoughts on “VOTE SAFE – VOTE IN PERSON”