Make Sure Your Vote Counts
- The deadline to register to vote is 15 days before an election.
- Citizens who are 16 or 17 years of age, can pre-register. Click here to pre-register.
- The Federal Voting Assistance Program is a federal voting assistance program for service members, their families, and overseas citizens. Provides access to election officials and voting assistance officers to help navigate the absentee voting process.
- In California, people with misdemeanor convictions and those who have felony convictions but are on probation or done with parole can also vote. If you have a conviction history, click here to check your eligibility.
Check Your Voter Registration Status
Register to Vote
Online, at registertovote.ca.gov
If you do not have a signature on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), you will need to print, sign, and mail the application.
On paper, using a Voter Registration Application – available at the library. Or contact the Department of Elections, your local post office, or DMV office.
Track Your Ballot
Track Your Vote-by-Mail ballot, subscribe to Where’s My Ballot for real-time notifications.
Non-Partisan Voter Guides
- League of Women Voters Guides in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.
Government Sites
- San Benito County Department of Elections: facilitates all local, district, state, and federal elections.
- The California Secretary of State Elections and Voter Information: Information about registering to vote in California, voter guides and hotline numbers, past and upcoming election results, names of current representatives, as well as information on how to contact them.
- United States Elections and Voter Information: The U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal. Information and educational resources to help you with learning the election process and voting.
- Federal Election Commission: Provides candidate, PAC, and party campaign finance summaries in their finance report disclosure database. Regulations as part of the Federal Election Campaign Act are also explained.
Fact-Checking
- Annenberg Political Fact Check (FactCheck.org): Designed to help voters by “monitoring the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.” Updated even when it is not election season. Includes information on special interest groups behind television ads.
- Politifact: a Pulitzer Prize-winning website created by the Tampa Bay Times. The site rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.
- Snopes.com — Snopes is a fact-checking website, dating back to the 1990s, that specializes in debunking urban legends, rumors, memes, and tweets, as well as fact-checking news stories.
- Mediabiasfactcheck.com: Media Bias/Fact Check is an independent online media outlet that evaluates the truthfulness and bias of various news sources from all points on the political spectrum.
- NewsGuard (newsguardtech.com) — NewsGuard uses trained journalists and experienced editors to rate and review thousands of news and information websites based on nine journalistic criteria. The criteria assess basic practices of credibility and transparency.
