Valley to be a Voting Center for presidential election

All nine colleges in LACCD will be open for 11 days for in-person voting starting Oct. 24.

By Gabriel Arizon, Editor-in-Chief

A ballot box has been set up at Valley College. Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020. The box is located on the north side of Burbank, between Coldwater and Ethel, by parking lot G. (Photo by Ava Rosate/The Valley Star)

Valley College will serve as a Voting Center for this year’s presidential election, though the site has been changed from Monarch Hall to the cafeteria due to power outage caused by last month’s flooding in Campus Center.

Valley, as well as the other eight colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, will be a Voting Center for the election, according to a district press release. Registered voters can vote at any of the colleges starting on Saturday, Oct. 24 to Monday, Nov. 2 for early voting between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Nov. 3 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Valley first became a Voting Center back in late February for the 2020 Presidential Primary Election, with Monarch Hall in the CC building acting as the voting site. However, because of the flooding that occurred last month — which still leaves the building without power — a new site had to be chosen.

“We’ve identified a couple of other locations and are discussing the options with the [Los Angeles] County Registrar- Recorder to determine which one is going to be the best location to move into,” Valley President Barry Gribbons said last Monday, “but we haven’t made that decision with the Registrar-Recorder’s office just yet.”

In the 2020 Election Student Leadership Roundtable on Oct. 16, it was confirmed by Dayna Everon, the recorder/clerk for the LA County Registrar, that the new site will be the cafeteria.

According to the district, there are over 700 Voting Centers in LA County. Some centers, such as the LACCD colleges, will be open for 11 days starting Oct. 24. Other centers will be open only for five days beginning Oct. 30. To know the nearest one available and when it will be open, search through the Registrar-Recorder’s website.

Additionally, there are more than 400 ballot drop boxes that are available 24/7 across the county, according to the Registrar. These drop boxes have been open since Oct. 5 and will remain so until 8 p.m. on Election Day. One drop box can be found on campus on Burbank Boulevard in the Lot G parking lot. More drop boxes can also be found on this website here.

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19. California residents that miss the deadline can register within 14 days of the election through the Conditional Voter Registration (also known as Same Day Voter Registration). For locations that allow same day registration, visit the state secretary’s website.

During the roundtable, Southwest College professor Lance Robert said, “If you want to affect change, then you must vote.”