Stanislaus County sent out ballots on Oct. 5 for the Nov. 3 general election, and they have arrived in mailboxes in the next few days, if they haven’t already.

Returning completed ballots as quickly as possible is a help to Registrar of Voters Donna Linder and her busier-than-normal staff, but Ceres voters may want to hold off until after the Oct. 22 candidates forum featuring those running for two open seats on the City Council.

The event will be hosted by the Ceres Chamber of Commerce and begins at 6 p.m. at the Ceres Community Center.

Two candidates are running for the Ceres City Council District 1 seat currently occupied by James Casey who is retiring. Gary M. Condit and Dorie Perez, both members of the Ceres Planning Commission, are running to represent District 1 residents.

In the Ceres City Council District 2 race, incumbent Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra is being challenged by Jorge Guerrero, president of Ceres Youth Baseball; and Ceres resident and family nurse practitioner Galen Guzman.

The forum in Ceres will also include the two state Senate candidates for District 4 – Republican Alexandra Duarte and Democrat Jaron Brandon.

The candidates will be allowed to give an opening statement and then they will answer questions by the moderators and some from the audience. Answers to questions will be limited to one minute, with time for a 30-second rebuttal upon request.

Pencils and paper will be provided for the audience to write their questions. No oral questions from the audience will be permitted.

Once voters are finished marking their ballots, they can be delivered to any post office or a number of drop boxes around the county, though voters can still go into vote centers and cast their ballots the old-fashioned way. Ballots may be returned by mail, an official drop box or delivered the Stanislaus County Elections Office at 1021 I Street.

Last-minute mail-in ballots that are postmarked Nov. 3 have until Nov. 10 to reach Linder’s Modesto office and, by law, must be counted. But Linder cautioned that Stanislaus County mail is sent all the way to Sacramento to be postmarked. Mail that is dropped into a county mailbox on election day still has to make the trek to Sacramento and might not be postmarked in time.

Additionally, Assembly Bill 5 allows for vote-by-mail ballots to be counted 13 days after the election.

“Those are the vote-by-mail that the signatures compared correctly, and everything was fine with them,” said Linder before the June 2 primary election. “They’re not conditional or provisional ballots or ones that need a signature-comparison completed.”

Here is a list of local vote centers and drop boxes that are open to the public:

Ceres

• Ceres City Hall, 2220 Magnolia Street,
• Save Mart, 2920 E. Whitmore Avenue, Ceres

Hughson

• Hughson City Hall, 7018 Pine Street, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Outdoor drop boxes will be accessible 24 hours, but will close at 8 p.m. on election night, Nov. 3. They are located at Stanislaus State, 1 University Circle, in Turlock, Bonita Elementary School, 425 Fink Road in Crows Landing; Burchell Nursery, 12000 Highway 120 in Oakdale; Salida Library, 4835 Sisk Road in Salida; and the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Office, 1021 I Street, Modesto.

Curbside drop boxes are located at Gallo Center for the Arts at 1000 I St. in Modesto, the Stanislaus Culinary Arts Institute at 1040 Wakefield Drive in Oakdale, and at Stanislaus State.

Any resident of Stanislaus County can utilize any drop box or vote center, regardless of their home address.

In the city of Hughson, challengers Geoff Powers and Sam Rush are taking on incumbent Mayor George Carr for the two-year term.

Brian Evans and Julie Ann Strain are guaranteed seats on the Hughson City Council as there are two open seats.

Three seats on the Yosemite Community College District Board of Trustees are expiring at year’s end and have generated competition. Trustee Don Davis (Area 1) is being opposed by William Andrew Dunn who is an educational consultant. Trustee Nancy Hinton (Area 2) did not file but Debra Hendricks, a retired school superintendent, has filed her candidacy as has Davis Rico, a veterans’ services aide. Trustee Jenny Nicolau (Area 4) has filed and has an opponent in teacher Ryan Segoviano.

Ceres voters are being asked if they wish to implement a one-cent sales tax increase to bolster city coffers. Measure P is titled the “Ceres 911 Emergency Response, Community Safety, Essential Services Measure.” If passed it would generate an estimated $9.4 million annually for the city but also make Ceres’ sales tax rate the highest in Stanislaus County at 9.375 percent.

Voters in the 13th Congressional District have a choice between Adam Gray (D) and Kevin Lincoln (R).

Joe Cortez contributed to this article.