Election Day is fast approaching. There is much at stake, and many ways to cast your vote leading up to Tuesday, June 7.
What’s on the ballot
The June 7 primary includes several local races, including selecting the city’s next mayor.
Six candidates are seeking the top office in Long Beach, including two sitting councilmembers, Suzie Price (3rd District) and Rex Richardson (9th District).
The five odd-numbered City Council seats are also open, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th. Only two of the incumbents are seeking reelection (Mary Zendejas in the 1st and Roberto Uranga in the 7th), which means the city’s governing body will see a significant leadership change.
Other city offices open include City Attorney, City Auditor and City Prosecutor, along with two seats on the Long Beach Unified Board of Education. (Watch the Post debate for Area 1 here).
Not sure who to vote for? You can read more about the candidates and compare their views using our Compare Your Candidates tool here.
Other regional and statewide offices include Los Angeles County Sheriff, governor, Congress and Assembly. CalMatters, a nonprofit news organization, has a complete guide to all these races here.
You cal also read our profiles of two of the top contenders for the 42nd Congressional seat, Mayor Robert Garcia and Assemblymember Cristina Garcia here.
How to vote
If you are registered to vote, you should have received a vote-by-mail ballot already. You can mail your ballot (no postage needed), or drop it off at one of the city’s 17 ballot drop box locations, which can be found here.
Vote-by-mail drop boxes will remain open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7, according to the city. If you’re voting by mail, all ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, June 7, 2022.
To check your registration information, request a ballot in a different language, or for more information, visit lavote.gov. All voters may track their ballots at california.ballottrax.net/voter/.
Eligible voters who missed the May 23 registration deadline but still wish to vote must complete same-day registration at the LA County elections office, at any county vote center or online.
People who use same-day registration can still vote in the June 7 primary, but their ballots will be processed and counted after the county elections office has completed the voter registration verification process, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.
Long Beach Transit will also provide free bus rides on all its routes on Election Day, June 7. Customers will be able to travel to and from voting locations or to drop off ballots aboard LBT all day long. More information is available at ridelbt.com/routes.
When to see results
Polls will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and voters who are still in line will still get to cast their ballots. Results of the first batch of mail-in ballots will be released around 8:15 p.m., according to Michael Sanchez, a spokesperson for the county clerk’s office.
That initial batch will include all the vote-by-mail ballots, which every registered voter in the county had mailed to them this year. About 15 minutes after that will come the counts for any votes that were cast in person at early vote centers ahead of Election Day.
Then it could be a long waiting game of hourly updates as ballots are turned into the county’s ballot processing center in Downey. The county stretches from Lancaster to Long Beach and from Westlake Village to Claremont and getting the ballots to Downey to be counted takes time.
“It is a process,” Sanchez said. “We’re a big county with a lot of space to cover and it’s really hard to predict when all the ballots will be in.”
If races are tight it could take several days or weeks to get clarity. After sending out a Wednesday morning press release to update the public on preliminary counts, the next update won’t come until Friday, June 10.
After that, the county will release two updates per week on Mondays and Fridays with the final update coming on Tuesday, July 5 (Monday is a holiday). The election results could be certified by July 7.
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