CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR VOTE IF YOU VOTED FOR A CANDIDATE WHO DROPPED OUT, OR CHANGED YOUR MIND ON WHO TO SUPPORT?

By Miriam Raftery

March 2, 2020 (San Diego) – If you still have a mail-in ballot but want to change your vote (for instance, if you marked a candidate who later dropped out of the presidential primary, or simply changed your mind on a measure or candidate), there are two ways to change your choice, according to San Diego County Registrar of Voters Michael  Vu.

“If they still have their ballot, they can cross out their initial choice and vote another candidate,” Vu advises voters in an e-mail response to ECM. “If they cross out and select another…and we can determine their intent, we will count the [choice] that they did not cross out. “

There is a second option. Vu says a voter can also “surrender their ballot and receive a replacement ballot. It is important that they go to their assigned precinct in order to receive a replacement ballot that matches the one they have in hand.”

Once you have mailed in your ballot or turned it in at a drop-off location such as a library or polling place, however, it is too late to change your vote, Vu confirmed.