It’s Election Day in SLO County! Here’s everything you need to know
It’s Election Day in San Luis Obispo County, and local voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots in California’s primary election until 8 p.m. today.
Registered voters have a chance to vote on legislative and congressional seats, county offices and supervisor races, as well as who should be the next governor of California.
San Luis Obispo resident John Post cast his ballot at the San Luis Obispo County Government Center on this misty Tuesday morning.
Before retiring to San Luis Obispo six years ago, he had a career in national security — so he knows the price of democracy, he said. He encouraged every citizen to vote.
“There’s been a lot of people who put a lot in to let people have that choice in America,” he said. “A lot of places in the world don’t have that choice.”
By Tuesday at about 10 a.m., 520 people had cast a poll ballot or provisional ballot at the 56 polling sites in the county, San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano said.
“Everything is going according to plan,” she said. “It’s a nice, quiet morning.”
How was Election Day going at the polls?
San Luis Obispo resident Dawn Turner volunteered as a poll worker at the San Luis Obispo Veterans Memorial Building on Tuesday morning.
The Monday Club adopted the poll, which means they provided the county with trained volunteers to operate the site.
Turner volunteered as a poll worker to give back to her community and to celebrate the legacy of suffragettes who fought for her right to vote, she said.
“There was a time when women couldn’t vote,” she said. “This is just a way to honor that and give back.”
On Monday at about 9 a.m., the polling place was rather quiet. A handful of people had stopped by to drop off their mail-in ballots, and even fewer people had voted in person, she said.
“I expect it to pick up some,” she said.
Meanwhile, the San Luis Obispo County Government Center was bustling with a bit more activity.
People drove by on their way to work to drop off mail-in ballots outside the building, and others went inside to cast a ballot in person, poll worker Camellia Pruett said.
Polling places were giving out “I Voted” stickers drawn by local elementary school students, and they were rather popular, she said.
San Luis Obispo resident Michelle Ritter-Taylor dropped off her ballot at the San Luis Obispo County Government Center on Tuesday morning.
“Everybody should vote,” she said. “It’s really the most important way that we have a say.”
How turnout looks for the 2026 Primary Election
Meanwhile, as of Monday, just over 25% of vote-by-mail ballots had been returned in SLO County, according to Erin Clausen, the public information officer for the Clerk-Recorder’s Office. The current statewide average of returned ballots is 16%.
Clausen said SLO County’s turnout rate is among the highest statewide, though it’s still relatively low at this point.
“Primaries typically have lower turnout, and it remains to be seen if voters here and elsewhere have been waiting to vote in this one,” she told The Tribune.
Voters can still submit their ballots at drop boxes across the county or vote in person at dozens of polling places throughout the day.
Vote results will start to be released at 8 p.m. with updates around every two hours until all poll ballots have been counted, Clausen said.
After that, the elections office will process the remaining mail-in and conditional ballots over the coming days, providing updates on the count until all the votes have been tallied.
The office has 30 days to certify the results, meaning the election will be finalized by July 2.
What’s on the ballot? And where can you vote in SLO County?
Here’s what to know:
What races are on the primary election ballot?
A slew of statewide and local primary races appear on the primary ballot this June.
At the state level, voters will choose who should be California’s next governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, state controller, state superintendent of public instruction and insurance commissioner.
In San Luis Obispo County, two supervisor seats are up for grabs on Tuesday. In District 2, Democrat and local business leader Jim Dantona is running against independent Morro Bay engineer Michael Erin Woody. The two candidates are vying to represent the North Coast and replace Bruce Gibson on the Board of Supervisors.
Over in District 4, the one-term incumbent Democrat Jimmy Paulding is facing Republican business owner Adam Verdin to represent the county’s southern coastal communities to far eastern areas.
Voters also will get to select the county’s top elections official. Elaina Cano, the incumbent, has held the seat since 2021. She’s running against Gaea Powell, a former Arroyo Grande mayoral candidate who currently faces a trial for eight felony charges of election and voter fraud, and Vanessa Rozo, a local business owner and paralegal from Grover Beach.
The 19th House District and 24th House District are also on the ballot, as well as the 30th and 37th Assembly District seats.
Candidates are running unopposed to be the county’s next superintendent of schools, assessor and auditor-controller.
Can voters still mail ballots?
One word of warning: It’s likely too late for ballots to be postmarked in time to be counted in the primary election.
U.S. Postal Service recommended voters mail their ballots in ahead of Election Day as a “common-sense measure,” a spokesperson told The Tribune.
Due to a shift in how the USPS operates, voters who live more than 50 miles from a postal hub cannot rely on their mail-in ballots to be postmarked on the day they send it.
San Luis Obispo County’s nearest postal hub is more than 70 miles away in Goleta.
As a result, Cano recommended voters mail their ballots at least seven days before the June 2 primary election.
If voters do decide to mail their ballot on Election Day, she said they should visit the post office and request a same-day postmark on their mail ballot to ensure their ballot is counted.
Ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received at SLO County’s elections office within seven days after the election in order to be counted.
“If the USPS doesn’t postmark them as timely, then they get rejected immediately,” Cano previously told The Tribune. “We don’t open them, we don’t process them, nothing.”
Where can I drop off my ballot in SLO County?
If you haven’t mailed your ballot yet, you can also drop it off in person at any of the county’s drop box locations.
Here’s where to go in the North County:
- Atascadero Library, 6555 Capistrano Ave.
- Paso Robles City Library, 1000 Spring St.
- San Miguel Community Services District, 1765 Bonita Place
- Santa Margarita Library, 9630 Murphy Ave.
- Shandon Library, 195 North Second St.
- Templeton Community Services District, 420 Crocker St.
In the South County:
- Arroyo Grande City Hall, 300 East Branch St.
- Grover Beach City Hall, 154 South Eighth St.
- Nipomo Library, 918 West Tefft St.
- Oceano Library, 1511 19th St.
- Pismo Beach City Hall, 760 Mattie Road,
On the North Coast:
- Cambria Library, 1043 Main St.
- Cayucos Library, 310 B St.
- Los Osos Library, 2075 Palisades
- Morro Bay Library, 625 Harbor St.
In San Luis Obispo:
- Cal Poly, University Union, Second Floor, 1 Grand Ave.
- San Luis Obispo County Department of Social Services, 3433 South Higuera St., San Luis Obispo
- San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, 1055 Monterey St., San Luis Obispo
How to vote in person in SLO County
On Election Day, there will be 56 polling sites open throughout San Luis Obispo County.
You can find your polling place at slovote.com. All polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Any voter who brings their mail-in ballot to their assigned polling location can exchange it for a poll ballot to vote in person.
Voters who don’t bring their mail ballots can still vote. They will just have to wait while a poll worker calls the elections office to confirm that their mail ballot has not already been returned.
This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
