What SLO County Elections Wants Voters to Know Two Weeks Out From Election Day
Author: Erin Clausen
Date: 10/21/2025 12:32 PM
More than 20% of mail ballots have already been returned. The SLO County Elections Office offers important advice to those who have not already voted.
With two weeks to go until Election Day, SLO County voters are already making their voices heard in the Statewide Special Election. Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano says more than 20 percent of the mail ballots sent to voters on October 3 have already been returned and processed, and the Elections Center has received thousands more that will be processed today. While the return rate has been robust, many voters are waiting to vote on Election Day—or they simply haven’t sent in their ballot yet—and SLO County Elections has a few important messages for them.
Don’t wait to mail
The USPS has stated that residents more than 50 miles from a postal hub cannot count on their return envelope getting postmarked the day they mail it. Since all SLO County voters are more than 50 miles from the Goleta USPS hub, this means that anyone intending to mail their ballot should do it at least a week before Election Day. If they do wait longer than that, they should take it inside a post office to be hand-cancelled, or they should use an official ballot drop box instead.
“If you want to see your vote included in Election Night totals, remember that mail ballots received before Election Day will be processed and tabulated and included in the first set of unofficial results released at 8pm,” said Cano. “Mail ballots received at the polls or by mail between November 4 and November 11 (and postmarked by November 4) will be counted after Election Day, during the official canvass.”
There are fewer polling places for this election
Because there is just one ballot question, there were fewer jurisdictional boundaries to consider when assigning voters to precincts and polling locations. This election has 45 polling locations, compared with about 70 in November 2024, so voters should confirm their polling location if they intend to vote in person. They can do this by checking the stub at the top of their mail ballot or by looking it up at https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/polling-place.
Taking your mail ballot to the polls will make voting there go quicker
SLO County residents who prefer to vote in person on Election Day are welcome to do that. If they bring their mail ballot to their assigned polling location, they can exchange it for a poll ballot. Anyone who does not bring their mail ballot to exchange can still vote; they will just need to wait a few minutes while a poll worker calls the Elections Office to confirm that their mail ballot has not already been returned.
The Elections Office is urging in-person voters to be patient while poll workers make these necessary confirmation calls on November 4.
If you haven’t registered yet, you can still vote
The conditional voting registration period runs from today through 8 pm on Election Day. Anyone who still needs to register must do that in person—either at the Elections Office in SLO or at the satellite office in Atascadero, which opens October 27—and they will be able to vote immediately. Conditional registration and voting is also available at every polling location on Election Day.
The Elections Office is providing a closer look at return rates and data
Recognizing the intense community interest in voting returns and statistics, and wanting to underscore transparency in the local process, the SLO County Elections Office has increased the amount of data they are releasing during this election cycle.
On October 17, the office reported via social media that at that point, 82% of returned ballots had been received by mail, with 14% returned via drop box, and 4% delivered to the Elections Office in person.
On October 20, the office released statistics about the party affiliation of the ballots received to date. Again sharing these statistics on social media, the Elections Office reported that 47% of ballots received and processed were from voters registered Democrat, 33% registered Republican, 14% registered No Party Preference, 4% registered American Independent, 1% registered Libertarian, and less than 1% each registered Green Party or Peace and Freedom.
The Elections Office plans to provide updated statistics regularly between now and the release of official election results. Voters can find links to this info and other election details at slovote.com/november2025.
