By Mary O’KEEFE

“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sept. 27, 1938

There is a lot of information, and misinformation, concerning the upcoming November election, whether it is safe to vote and what has changed. 

CVW reached out to the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) with some questions regarding the upcoming November election. 

As of April 11, 2024, over 3.4 million registered voters use the vote by mail method including 556,045 voters in LA County. 

“Mail voting in Los Angeles County has not changed. Every active registered voter will receive a vote by mail ballot. Voters can fill it out and return it – at an official ballot drop box, by mail or at a vote center – as soon as it arrives,” said Michael Sanchez, spokesman, RR/CC. “Voters can expect the same secure ballot-processing procedures used in every election. They can return a ballot at any official ballot drop box, by mail, at a vote center or by voting in person. Voters who want added confidence that their ballot has been received can return it early using a drop box or vote center.”

The RR/CC has added a few drop boxes throughout communities where they have seen “heavy ballot drop box” use. There are 426 ballot drop boxes within LA County. 

Voters can find the nearest drop boxes at lavote.gov/dropbox. The list was not displayed as of press time but is expected to be available 30 days prior to the Nov. 3 election.  

Drop boxes are available to voters beginning 29 days before and on Election Day. The drop boxes close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.  

The boxes are bolted into cement or chained in place. They are designed with security features in accordance to state regulations and have an exterior coating to reduce permanent graffiti or damage. The ballots that are dropped into the boxes are picked up regularly by two election workers, according to the RR/CC. 

  The deadline to register to vote online or by mail is Oct. 19, 15 days prior to Election Day. 

“After that, voters can still register and cast a ballot the same day through conditional voter registration at any vote center, up through Election Day,” Sanchez added. 

There has been a lot of talk about voter integrity and the safety of ballots cast.

“Multiple safeguards work together: citizenship and eligibility are verified at the time a person registers; every vote by mail ballot goes through signature verification against the voter’s file; if someone attempts to vote more than once, our system flags the second ballot when it arrives, or when at a vote center, the Electronic Pollbook will flag that the voter has already voted,” Sanchez said. 

Information concerning voting and registration can be found at lavote.gov.

In the 2024 Presidential election, election officials rejected 122,480 vote by mail ballots, or 0.9% of all mailed in ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s office. 

According to a report from the Sacramento Bee on March 20, 2025 the vast majority of those rejected ballots arrived late, had mismatched voter signatures or no signatures at all. 

Rejected ballots are not the same as voter fraud. Voter fraud is when someone knowingly casts a ballot illegally; many of the rejected ballots are due to oversights by voters. 

An analysis of mailed ballot rejections during the 2024 election by USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy found that 59% had a non-matching voter signature, 27% were mailed or arrived after the deadline, and 11% had no signature. The other 3% were dismissed for other unspecified reasons.

According to the Brookings Institution, which examined the extensive data research by the Heritage Foundation (authors of Project 2025) through their voter fraud database, less than 1% of fraud cases have been reported between 13 and 38 years. For example in Arizona, according to the database Heritage Foundation analyzed for 25 years with 36 elections held, in a total of 42,626,379 ballots cast, found that there were 36 cases of fraud, which is 0.0000845%.

Data continues to be gathered and voter fraud reports are investigated.