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President Donald Trump last week again brought into question the integrity of the upcoming election by suggesting, without evidence, that voters could engage in fraud at polling places. 

“Go into the polls and watch very carefully,” Trump said at the first presidential debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Since the debate, Trump and his campaign have continued calls for poll watchers, calling on an “Army for Trump.” 

Although every registered California voter will receive a mail-in ballot this week, most counties will still offer physical polling locations for those who want to cast a ballot in person. For those who want to, state law allows the public to observe many aspects of the election process — from preparation of voting equipment to the canvass of the vote after Election Day. 

Excepts:

Identity theft experts and elections officials are on guard for a new type of cybersecurity threat - one that stands not just to rob you of your personal information, but undermine your faith in the election.

Last week, NBC 7 Investigates showed you how to track your ballot by signing up for text notifications.

Even then, Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation worried bad actors might capitalize on this new statewide voter service.

“One issue that’s been discussed on one of the election security lists that I’m on is the potential for somebody to spoof this service,” said Alexander in an interview last Friday. “Or alarm voters with messages that are fraudulent.”

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For the first time in California history, a ballot will make its way in the mail this week to every registered California voter, a decision made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that will reshape the election experience as well as the strategies of campaigns and candidates.

More than 21 million ballots will be mailed, more than in any state in the nation. Most will arrive this week, though some counties began the process almost two weeks ago. State law requires absentee ballots to be mailed no later than Monday, 29 days before the Nov. 3 election.

Few states have moved more decisively toward voting by mail over the last two decades than California, and the results have been striking. At least two-thirds of the ballots cast in the three most recent statewide elections had been mailed to voters, peaking at 72% of all votes recorded in the March primary.

We spoke with Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, about the errors to avoid when filling out your ballot so that you can get your vote on its way to being counted.

And if the news of the president's COVID-19 diagnosis has you wondering about how this will impact the election in general? The honest answer is that nobody quite knows right now. But one thing Alexander wants you to know: giving yourself a deadline for when you want to mail your ballot and working backwards with a plan for when to do your homework and actually fill out your ballot will help. "Your plan may shift, but in times of uncertainty it’s good to have a game plan," she says. Reading this is a great start.

Plan to Send Your Ballot on Time

Before we even talk about what's on the ballot itself, you need to know this: The #1 reason that ballots get disqualified in California is because they aren't mailed on time.