KPIX Vote Smart: Mobile Voting Centers A Welcome Convenience For Voters In Remote Areas Of San Mateo Co.

PESCADERO (KPIX) -- Election officials in San Mateo County are trying to make it easier and more convenient to vote, travelling with a mobile voting center to remote corners of the sprawling county.

"It's really important in this election in particular to get people to vote. And anything the county can do to make that happen is really nice. And it's outside, it's super safe in the pandemic," says Max Schulz, who came to check out the remote voting center that's in Pescadero during the week leading up to the November 3rd election.

The mobile voting center has many of the same capabilities of the main election office in San Mateo. Voters can drop off their mail-in ballots, vote in person or get questions about the status of their voter registration answered right on the spot.

"I looked out my window and saw the voting station. I said, "Oh, I've been wondering for days how to get this question answered. I'd been calling the state and getting lost in a rabbit warren of answering machines," says Denby Adamson.

Adamson says she lost her home in a recent wildfire in Santa Cruz County and is living temporarily across the county line in San Mateo. She visited the mobile voting center Monday afternoon to ask where she was legally supposed to vote.

"Having something close by and convenient is just amazing. And having real people to talk to and answer questions is a real luxury in this age," she said.

Election officials in San Mateo County are predicting record turnout in the upcoming election. They predict that potentially 90% of registered voters in the county may cast a ballot.

The mobile voting program, they say, is an effort to make the process as simple and convenient as possible.

"We want to bring mobile voting to the people. The goal is to make voting easy, safe and convenient in San Mateo County," says Jim Irizarry, the Assistant Registrar of Voters in San Mateo County.

The mobile voting center will be stationed in Pescadero through Thursday, October 29. It then moves to the community of La Honda.