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A new effort has been launched to encourage voters in California to return their ballots EARLY. The Secure the Vote California 2022 Initiative, a project of the non-partisan Transparency Foundation, is declaring Sunday, October 16, 2022 as “Safe Vote Sunday” and is seeking to partner with churches, community groups, and others to encourage voters to return their ballots for California’s November 2022 election on or before that day.
Unfortunately, most conservative voters think it is best to wait until Election Day to cast their ballot — particularly because they don’t trust the US Postal Service and think their mail ballot could be tampered with or even discarded.
The project seeks to dispel the myth that early voting is somehow less secure — when in fact early voting is actually more secure and would benefit conservative candidates the most.
“Early voting gives voters the time they need to properly track and verify that their vote was indeed counted,” says Carl DeMaio, chairman of the Transparency Foundation.
“More importantly, by voting early, voters can help their preferred candidates win elections because those campaigns won’t have to spend money on mailers, text messages, phone calls, door knocks, etc. to turn out their base vote,” DeMaio adds.
“Plus voting early gives you not only peace of mind, but also peace and quiet because your name will be taken off the list of endless door knocks and robo-calls from candidates,” DeMaio says.
In addition to ensuring voters turn in their ballots on or before Sunday, October 16th, the Transparency Foundation is urging the public to spread awareness of Safe Vote Sunday and the S.A.F.E. method of voting.
The S.A.F.E. method is an acronym for “Send, Audit, Fix, Examine,” which breaks down the voting process into sending your ballot by mail on day one, auditing the delivery of your ballot, fixing any errors and finding your local polling place, and examining the ballot counting process by becoming a poll watcher.
“Californians are right to have concerns about the election and their ballot, and the S.A.F.E. method will go a long way to addressing them by ensuring you vote early, track the process, correct mistakes, and monitor the counting of ballots,” said DeMaio.
Aside from seeking organizational partners, DeMaio says even individual voters can participate in Safe Vote Sunday in the following ways:
DeMaio says “Safe Vote Sunday” is only one step in a much larger battle he’s committed to waging to restore election integrity in California.
“With an all-mail-in election using outdated voter registration rolls, California hands-down has the worst election process in the nation,” says DeMaio.
“We’re committed to shining a light on elections in this state to flag any problems in real time and demanding improvements to the process in the future,” DeMaio remarks. “We can’t make this program happen without your support, so please join the campaign today to help us continue the fight to restore election integrity,” DeMaio concludes.
Join the Fight: Restore Election Integrity in CA