How to Vote in the 2020 San Francisco Elections

 Because nothing is ever simple in this complicated world, the upcoming February–March 2020 election includes three subject areas each with a different requirement to vote in them:

  • The Presidential primary, which Democratic voters are automatically able to vote in and No Party Preference voters can request a “crossover” Democratic Presidential primary ballot for;

  • Your county’s Democratic Party’s committee election, which only Democratic voters can vote in;

  • The rest of the election (e.g., the Congressional primaries), which any registered voter can vote in.

In this guide, we’ll tell you what you need to do to be ready to vote in the races you’re interested in.

Everything on this page is a lot easier if you do it ASAP. By the start of February, mail-in ballots and sample ballots will start going out (to arrive on or around February 3rd).

The official deadline for registering or changing your registration is February 18th, though you can do Conditional Voter Registration up until the last day of the election, March 3rd.

We’ll make many references to your county’s Department of Elections. Here are the ones for the Bay Area (all links obtained from the CA SOS’s website), plus the California Secretary of State:

When do I need to vote?

No later than March 3rd.

If you’re a permanent vote-by-mail voter, you’ll get your ballot on or around February 3rd. You can complete and mail in your ballot at any time during that month, as long as it arrives by March 3rd (if it’s getting close, consider dropping it off in person instead if you can).

If you want to vote in person (or have to, because you’re not registered to vote-by-mail), you can. You can vote at any Voting Center in your county after it opens. Voting Centers in San Francisco include City Hall (opens February 3rd), SFSU (opens February 29th), and Joseph Lee Rec Center (opens February 29th). Check your county’s website for availability.

On the last day of voting (traditionally called “Election Day”), you’ll be able to vote at any polling place in your county. The one you’re assigned, which is printed on your sample ballot, will have your name on the roster and a ballot already allocated for you. You can vote at any other polling place in your county, but will have to do so provisionally (your name won’t be on the roll).

Wait, what’s this about vote-by-mail?

If you’re registered as a vote-by-mail voter, you will get your real ballot—in addition to your sample ballot—in the mail, one month in advance of “Election Day”. You then fill it out in your own time, at home, and then follow the instructions to mail it back in the specially-designated, postage-paid envelope.

Vote-by-mail is, in a word, awesome. It gives you an entire month to vote, using hand-marked paper ballots, and enables you to vote from anywhere in the country (as long as your ballot makes it to your county’s Department of Elections by March 3rd!).

You don’t need to re-register to apply to be a vote-by-mail voter if you don’t want to make any other changes. If you do re-register (e.g., to change party affiliation), you can opt into vote-by-mail at the same time.

Don’t want to actually vote by mail? That’s OK; you can drop off your completed ballot at your county’s Department of Elections (City Hall in SF) whenever they’re open and accepting ballots (check your county’s website; here’s SF), or at your polling place on the last day. Receiving your ballot a month in advance and filling it out before you drop it off means makes dropping it off take much less time.

Tell me more about this “Democratic Party committee” election. What’s that?

In the City and County of San Francisco, our Democratic Party central committee is the SF DCCC. If you live in another county, you’ll have your county’s Democratic Party committee on your county’s Democratic-voter ballots (and only on those ballots).

Your county’s election for the party’s central committee can help shape the direction of the Party for at least the next four years (the duration of a DCCC term). Without endorsing any particular candidates or slate, we would encourage you to research the candidates for your county’s Party committee and vote your conscience. Don’t skip the committee race if you can help it—the results of this race can ripple far into the future!

Check out our Guide and Endorsements for the DCCC.

BUT: You must be registered as a Democratic voter to vote in this race. No Party Preference voters can’t vote in a Party committee race. If you’re a NPP voter who wants to vote in the DCCC race, you’ll have to re-register as Democratic.

Other parties may also have a committee election on the ballot this year, but if you want to vote in the Democratic Presidential primary, there’s no way to do that and also vote in some other party’s committee election.

I’m not registered to vote. How do I fix that?

In San Francisco: See the Department of Elections’s website for registration info.

In other counties: Check your county’s Department of Elections website, or the California Secretary of State’s website.

The state’s website also has details on eligibility to vote. You must be eligible in order to register.

The easiest way to register is online, using the California Secretary of State’s Online Voter Registration form.

If you don’t register by February 18th, you’ll have to vote in person and do a Conditional Voter Registration along with it. If your voter registration is accepted, your vote will count. But this takes significantly longer, and requires voting in person (you won’t be able to vote by mail in this election).

I think I’m registered, but I don’t know what my party affiliation is.

OR: I don’t know whether I’m registered or not.

In San Francisco: Use the Department of Elections’s Voter Portal to check your registration.

In other counties: Use the California Secretary of State’s Voter Status form to check your registration.

I’m registered as a No Party Preference voter…

… and I want to vote in the Democratic Presidential primary.

If you want to vote in the Democratic Primary for the Presidential election, but not the DCCC race, you’ll need to request a “crossover” ballot for the Democratic Presidential Primary using SF’s Voter Portal or your county’s equivalent.

Do this ASAP, especially if you’re a vote-by-mail voter—ballots go out shortly before February 3rd, and you want to make sure they’ll send you the right one!

In the SF Voter Portal, the option to request a crossover ballot is in the “Apply to Vote-by-Mail” tab. Yes, even if you’re already a vote-by-mail voter. Note that this is a permanent selection for this election—once you’ve requested a crossover ballot for a particular party’s primary, you can’t change it online.

You can also request a Democratic crossover ballot by other means, documented on the SF Department of Elections’s website. If you’re not in SF, your county’s website should have instructions on how to do it in your county.

… and I want to vote in my county’s DCCC race.

If you want to vote in the DCCC race, you must re-register as Democratic, using the same process that folks who aren’t registered use.

Re-registering as Democratic will also ensure you can vote in the Democratic Presidential primary. You won’t need to request a crossover ballot if you do this.

… and I don’t care about the Presidential primary or the DCCC race.

You can always vote in “open” primaries such as your House of Representatives district primary, regardless of your own party affiliation, so if that’s all you care about, you don’t have to make any changes.

I’m registered as a Democratic voter.

You can vote in the DCCC race and the Democratic Presidential primary. You don’t need to change anything.

But, if you’re not already a vote-by-mail voter, you can opt into that using SF’s Voter Portal (if you’re in SF), or by other means provided by your county.

I’m registered with some other party.

If you want to vote in the Democratic Party’s primary and/or your county’s DCCC race, you’ll have to re-register as Democratic (or as No Party Preference and request a crossover ballot as described above, but that’s the long way around).