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Yahoo!Mayor Marty Blum sent an email alert last week to voters expecting to participate in the upcoming city election on November 3, which will decide the next mayor, three city council seats, and four city measures. Ballots have been sent out for the city's first vote-by-mail election, but some ballots destined for apartment complexes may have been misplaced, resulting in their being delivered to wrong addresses, or tossed as junk mail, or both.
Campaign ads looking too much like voting materials are accused of confusing postal workers responsible for sorting the mail. Lane Anderson, a retired letter-carrier from the USPS who is on the ballot for City Council, said it is not unusual, when large amounts of non-preferential mail, like political ads, clog the handling rooms and sorting cases, for first class mail to get buried in the piles. "The solution would be to reform the rules so that political propaganda has to go out as first class," commented Anderson, adding, "After all it really does not provide a public service. You don't get objective information that way."
In this kind of election, the only voting method is mailing back or dropping off the ballots voters receive in the mail-no going to the polls this time. Blum wrote that the issue of misplaced ballots "raises serious concerns that Santa Barbara apartment residents may not have fair access to their ballots."
Marcelo Lopez, Director of Administrative Services for the City of Santa Barbara, stated that while he was aware of the message circulating from Mayor Blum, reports of misplaced ballots lack details. He has not received the name or address of an apartment complex where such a mix-up took place.
If you are a registered voter and have not received your ballot in the mail, contact the City Clerk's Office at 564-5309.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Important Notice This is a Vote-By-Mail Ballot Election. There will be NO polling places designated. You must vote the ballot mailed out by the City and return it by mail or in person to one of the Official Drop-Off Centers listed below, using the Return / Identification Envelope provided within the ballot packet.
Be sure to sign your name on the back of the Return Envelope.
VOTE EARLY! Your ballot must be received by 8:00 pm on Election Day, November 3, 2009, to be counted.
See Voting Instructions inside the packet.
Drop-Off Centers If you wish to deliver your ballot rather than mail it, you may do so on Saturday, October 31, 2009, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and [Election Day], Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm at the following locations.
- Braille Institute, Auditorium
2031 De La Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
- Cleveland School, Multi Purpose Room
123 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara, CA 93103
- Grace Lutheran Church, Fellowship Hall
3869 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
- Holy Cross Church, Parish Hall
1740 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
- Pilgrim Terrace, Activity Center
649 Pilgrim Terrace Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
- Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Fleischmann Auditorium
2559 Puesta Del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
- Santa Barbara City Hall, City Clerk's Office
735 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
The City Clerk's Office drop-off center will be open daily, Monday - Thursday, 7:30 am to 5:30 pm and Fridays, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (City Hall is closed every other Friday) If you are a registered voter and have not received your ballot in the mail, contact the City Clerk's Office at 564-5309.
More info: SBCityVote.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Double-clicking on any word or phrase in this story will open a reference window with definitions and links to other reference material.
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ah, your (government operated) Post Office at work.
JohnLocke (anonymous profile)
October 13, 2009 at 10:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"ah, your (government operated) Post Office at work."
--JohnLocke
Easy to say, but they do a pretty good job considering they handle over 200 Billion pieces of mail each year. That's well over half a billion pieces per day.
Commercial businesses often make *gargantuan* mistakes. But you often don't hear about them unless you're an insider. The stories I could tell ...
EastBeach (anonymous profile)
October 13, 2009 at 11:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Not stated in this story is that Mayor Blum sent her email warning only to the Democratic voter list. If there is an issue should "our" mayor send out her advice to all registered voters?
As far as blaming the Post Office for any of this, that's absurd. They do a great job. If people don't pay attention to what is delivered to them its not the carriers fault.
RHS (anonymous profile)
October 13, 2009 at 4:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
RHS>>> Registered democratic voter here and I did not receive Mayor Blum's email warning so I am curious to know where your information comes from.
DonMcDermott (anonymous profile)
October 13, 2009 at 8:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hyper-belligerent frou-fra on the part of RHS, and as he jumps on the unclear language as presented by the writer and begins frothing:
From this [the article]:
"Mayor Marty Blum sent an email alert last week to voters expecting to participate in the upcoming city election..."
You get this [RHS's crabby inference]:
"Not stated in this story is that Mayor Blum sent her email warning only to the Democratic voter list."
I'm guessing Marty has an email list, like many of us do, which we use to send info to our peers. RHS wants to infer it is misuse of the Mayor's office.
Maybe so, but it's not in these pages.
binky (anonymous profile)
October 13, 2009 at 8:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
John Locke - I would love to see one positive comment from you in my lifetime.
my2cents (anonymous profile)
October 14, 2009 at 2:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It appears she sent the email out through the Democratic Party Edhat had a copy a few days ago. It was just a standard email sent by campaigns/parties and then the city downplayed what she had said from article in the Daily Sound afterwards.
pointssouth (anonymous profile)
October 15, 2009 at 11:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)