Voting changes for 2020

Come the March 2020 primary, Butte County will implement a new system in which every voter will receive a mail-in ballot and can go to any “vote center” in the region.

Per the Voters Choice Act of 2016, all counties must make this shift by 2022, but some can choose to pilot the program. Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs said her department chose to do so because more than 19,000 voters were displaced by the Camp Fire. Also, as of April, 71 percent of the 122,295 county voters already were registered to vote by mail.

About a month before the primaries, voters will receive ballots, and nine drop-off boxes will be set up. Ten days before the election, 13 centers will open with voting machines, ballot drop-off, replacement ballots and registration assistance.