LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week the Registrar of Voters Office mailed out absentee ballots to thousands of Lake County voters for the June 3 primary election.

Interim Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez said the vote-by-mail ballots can go out at the earliest on May 5, and so this past Monday they were delivered to the post office.

This June Lake County voters have a number of races to decide, including the assessor-recorder, District 2 and 3 seats on the Board of Supervisors, district attorney and sheriff.

Valadez reported that the Registrar of Voters Office will begin processing the absentee ballots that come in beginning at 8 a.m. next Monday, May 12. That processing will continue through election day on Tuesday, June 3, and through the official canvass.

Although they will begin processing the ballots next week, results of absentee ballot voting will not be released publicly until after the polls close at 8 p.m. June 3, election officials reported.

Although new or updated voter registrations are continuing to come in, as of Thursday Valadez told Lake County News that there are 33,366 registered voters in Lake County.

Of those, 1,766 are mail precinct voters, who have to vote by mail because there is no physical precinct for voting activities. There also are 219 permanent absentees for military of overseas voters, she said.

Altogether, there are 18,606 absentee voters in Lake County, compared to 12,775 precinct voters, Valadez said.

Over the last several years, the number of absentee voters in Lake County has grown to surpass the number of people who report to precincts to cast their votes.

In the November 2012 election, there were 34,938 registered voters, with 10,215 ballots (or 29.2 percent) cast at precincts and 13,470 ballots (38.6 percent) cast by mail, according to county election records.

At the time of the November 2010 election, the county had 32,554 registered voters, with 9,124 ballots, or 28 percent, cast at precincts and 12,363, or 28 percent, of ballots submitted by mail, county records showed.

Once the election night count is done on June 3, the official canvass will being at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 4, and continue –  excluding weekends and holidays – until completed, according to the Registrar of Voters Office.

Valadez reported that observers are invited to view the processing and counting of the ballots, but they are not allowed to interfere with the election process.

Meanwhile, as they prepare for election day, Valadez said she and her staff are continuing to process voter registrations.

The last day to register – or reregister if a person has moved to a new address, changed their mailing address within the county or changed their name – is May 19.

Registration forms are available at the Registrar of Voters Office, as well as at most local post offices, libraries, city offices and chamber of commerce offices.

Completed voter registration forms must be either personally delivered to the Registrar of Voters Office – located in Room 209 on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport – on or before May 19; or postmarked on or before May 19 and received by mail by the Registrar of Voters Office.

Voter registration also is available online at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ .

The Registrar of Voters Office can be reached at 707-263-2372.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.