Santa Cruz County residents wait to cast their ballots on Nov. 2. Polls across the county will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.  (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/Report for America)

SANTA CRUZ >> Election Day is tomorrow, Tuesday, and the phrase ‘naked voting’ has been heard around many local voting events and seen across social media this election season. What does it mean? 

The ‘naked voting’ movement certainly doesn’t mean asking people to go to the polls without any clothes on, but rather is a reminder for people to bring their ballots “naked” when voting in person.

According to Tricia Webber, Santa Cruz County Clerk, a ballot is technically clothed by its envelope when mailing it in to be counted. 

But naked voting, on the other hand, is taking the ballot that was mailed to you and submitting it to an official drop-off location in person without its envelope. It is an effective way to ensure votes are counted on time, she said.

“I’m not discouraging people from returning their ballots inside envelopes because I want people to vote,” Webber said in an interview on Monday. “Ballots that are inside envelopes take us up to 48 hours to process. So the ballots that we’re receiving in envelopes today will not be processed in time to be in election night results. They will instead be in a subsequent vote total update later this week.” 

Mail-in ballots postmarked before or on November 3 and received by November 10 will still be counted.

To vote “naked,” residents just need to bring their mail-in ballots, without the envelope, to any polling place. After checking in with elections staff at the polling center, voters will sign a form stating that they haven’t already voted, and then they will be asked to directly deposit the completed ballot into the secure ballot box.

At a recent voting event, Patty King, a volunteer with the organization Indivisible Santa Cruz County, wore an “ask me how to vote naked” T-shirt. 

“You can fill it out at home, wherever you want to,” King said, reassuring voters that naked ballots “will be counted.”

Find a list of Santa Cruz County voting locations and drop-boxes here.

Inform your vote!

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