Carmel-by-the Sea rolled out street addresses for the first time in a century this fall. With them came notices for every voter to update their registration, weeks before an election.
Carrie Hennessey got a postcard in October telling her to re-register to vote.
"Which I did," said Hennessey, "and then I had to send in a signature card, so I was concerned I wasn't gonna get it in in time to get my vote in."
Hennessey did get her ballot, and returned it. But even with her new address, she says, "we're still not getting mail service at our house."
She dropped her ballot off at the post office, where all Carmel residents still get their mail delivered to P.O. boxes. It’s just their physical addresses that changed—from geographic descriptions or house names Carmel used before September to a house number.
But Monterey County registrar Gina Martinez says updating home addresses is a big deal, "given this climate, when we have a federal government that's attacking registrars in the state of California for not following voter list maintenance."
California state law allows voters to update their registration up to Election Day.
