January 28, 2008 - Clerk's Column

Paper: Siskiyou Daily News (Yreka, CA)
Title: Clerk's Column
Date: January 28, 2008
Author: Colleen Setzer

Siskiyou County Clerk: Are you ready to vote on Feb. 5? I hope you've done your research on the candidates and issues and are ready to go to the polls and cast your ballot . My intent with this column is to pass along some tips that I hope you find helpful in making your voting experience as easy as possible. First of all, do you know where your polling place is? This important information is included on the back page of your sample ballot . There are some new polling locations, so be sure you know where you're going on election day. Here's a quick rundown of the changes: Quartz Valley precinct has relocated from the Quartz Valley School to the Scott Valley Grange Hall in Greenview, and the Lake Shastina precincts will be voting at the Lake Shastina Community Church Educational Building on Jackson Ranch Road. In addition, the Montague precincts have moved from the elementary school to the Montague Community Hall.

If you need help determining where your polling place is located, call the County Clerk's Office at 842-8084. Need to save time at the polls? I've found that if you pre-mark your sample ballot and take it with you to your polling place to use as a guide to vote your official ballot , it cuts down on time spent in the voting booth. If you're one of the 13,238 Siskiyou County voters voting through the mail (by the way, that's 52 percent of the county's registered voters), remember that your ballot must be returned to the County Clerk's Office no later than 8 p.m. on election day.

Postmarks are not accepted, so please don't drop your ballot in the mail on Feb. 5. You can return it to the County Clerk's Office, at 510 N. Main St. in Yreka, or to any polling place on election day. On election day, the clerk's office staff will put on a long, busy day - beginning at 6 a.m. to assist with opening polls throughout the county, and ending at around midnight, after we've received all voted ballots from the precincts. A lot of voters are asking when results will be released on election night. The first results will be released by 9 p.m., and will be totals of the vote-by-mail ballots counted at the clerk's office. Precincts results should be released by midnight.

The results will be on our Web page at www.co.siskiyou.ca.us, or you can call the clerk's office for updates at 842-8084. Keep in mind, the results released on election night are not final - we will have vote-by-mail ballots turned into the polls and provisional ballots to count following the election . California law provides 28 days after the election to finalize our count and certify results. Be a part of history by voting in the first separate Presidential Primary in California on Feb. 5.

See you at the polls - Colleen