Imperial County is getting prepared for Election Day
Tuesday June 7th is the final day for local voters to cast their ballots - CBS 13 on your side's Vanessa Gongora reports
IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The big day, Primary Election Day is tomorrow June 7th. Early voting has been open for the past 30 days and voters can still go to the Imperial County Administration building to vote today before 5 p.m. or you can go tomorrow between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Imperial County Registrar of Voters, Linsey Dale, says every voter received a ballot in the mail.
If you're mailing the ballot in, it must be postmarked by June 7th. If you are dropping off at one of the drop boxes or precincts, it cannot be any later than 8 p.m. on the day of the election.
According to Dale, there are 87,000 voters registered in Imperial County. She says local voters can go to their precinct and vote if you'd like to, but does ask to bring the ballot back and surrender it. If you don't, you'll have to do a special provisional ballot.
"We would love to have voters send in their ballot to us but we understand some voters like to go to their precincts and so that's why we have 57 of them open throughout Imperial County," says Dale.
The Mayor of El Centro, Tomas Oliva says it's very important for people to vote in a primary election.
"It's extremely important because this is the first round and this is where we kind of clear the field. As you know many races we have a long list of candidates and so the primary selection is to kind of select the final two or the top two and those will then go off in November," says Oliva. "But for some races, this is the election. So when we're looking at Imperial Irrigation District (IID) or looking at some races where there's only two candidates, this is the election. So that's why for those races, it's extremely important."
Oliva encourages residents to get out there and vote because their vote matters.
"If you've ever wondered why a politician doesn't pay attention to you, this is going to sound very crude but it's the reality, we don't have unlimited resources to be able to talk to every single individual," Oliva said. "The difference between that person who gets a call from a candidate and the person who never gets called, has to do a lot to do with how often that resident votes."
Oliva says for first time voters, it's important they do their homework.
"This is not a popularity contest. People are going to be making decisions when you're watching as well when you're not watching. So you want to know who these people are as individuals and it's not about who looks the coolest, who wears the best clothes or stuff like that," says Oliva. "It's about what they stand for. Start now, start voting and vote consistently."
