Vote-by-Mail Ballot Return Postage for Santa Cruz County Ballots is 71 Cents

Due to the large ballot for the June 3, 2014 Primary Election weighing just over the 1-ounce limit for a 49-cent stamp, returning a ballot by mail will cost 71 cents.

For voters who do not want to pay the additional postage, ballots may be dropped off at either of the 4 City Clerks Offices during their business hours: Capitola, located at 420 Capitola Avenue; Santa Cruz located at 809 Center Street; Scotts Valley located at 1 Civic Center Drive; and Watsonville located at 275 Main Street, 4th Floor, 6th Floor of the parking garage.  In addition, there are two drop boxes in the county: one is a white mail box style box in front of the county building, and the second one is a green (usually used for dropping off payments to the City) located at 215 Union Street behind City Hall in front of the Police Department. These drop boxes are available to voters to drop off their ballot 24 hours a day, seven days a week up until 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 3.

Voters in Santa Cruz County may also drop off their voted mail ballot at any polling site in the county on Election Day, June 3. Both the Santa Cruz County Clerk/Elections Department and Watsonville City Hall will be open on the weekend prior to the election, May 31 and June 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for voters to vote and for voters with vote-by-mail ballots to return their ballots.  Ballots cast by Santa Cruz County voters must be received by an elections official in this county no later than 8 p.m., Election Day, Tuesday, June 3.

To date, 68,526 vote-by-mail ballots have been mailed to Santa Cruz County registered voters. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is May 27. Vote-by-Mail applications are printed on the back cover of the Sample Ballot and Voter’s Information Pamphlet that have been mailed to voters in Santa Cruz County. Voters may also apply for a ballot online at www.votescount.com, at any of the City Clerk’s Offices in Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley or Watsonville, or by calling 831-454-2060. 

The Santa Cruz County Clerk has met with local United States postal officials to request that all vote-by-mail ballots, regardless of postage, be delivered to the office, and the department has set up an account at the post office to cover any insufficient postage. While this is a good back-up system to ensure delivery of ballots regardless of postage, it cannot be guaranteed 100 percent of the time. 

For more information, please contact the County Clerk/Elections Department at 831-454-2060 or visits us online at www.votescount.com