County Approves SMC as a Voting Center
Santa Monica College (SMC) has been approved by Los Angeles County to serve as a voting center for the 2020 November general election.
The Corsair Gym, located between the main campus field and the Library, has been assigned as the designated voting center. A map of the area can be found on the SMC website.
In previous years, the voting center was at the SMC Foundation building on Pico Blvd., across the street from the gym. However, according to SMC Chief of Police Johnnie Adams, L.A. County requested that SMC move the voting center to the gym because it has more ample space to properly execute COVID-19 safety protocol.
“The county is going to provide six-foot distancing markers. They’re also going to have masks [for] people that don’t have masks. Depending on the lines, we have a backup plan too, that we open up the Corsair field for people to wrap around the track,” Chief Adams said.
This will be the eighth voting center in Santa Monica, and potentially the largest, as it is intended to be a hub for students to have easy access to voting. Tobias Maramba, a recent SMC graduate, believes this will particularly benefit students at the college.
“A lot of students are probably familiar with SMC’s campus and maybe they just feel more at ease going to a place that’s familiar with them to vote,” said Maramba.
He currently attends the University of California, Irvine and still resides in Santa Monica, so he plans to vote in-person at SMC if the crowds are under control and poll workers properly enforce COVID-19 protocol.
Although many voters opt to cast their ballots by mail this year, the in-person voting process will look similar to years past -- with the addition of masks and sanitizing equipment. The actual voting process will mimic the style of the March primaries: voters will wait in line to be checked in by a poll worker (identification may be required), then receive their ballot and walk into a private booth to fill out their form.
In addition, voters will also have the option to cast their ballot curbside from their car, a new method to help ease COVID-19 concerns.
The voting center will be managed by L.A. County with support from the SMC Police Department and Event Services. Together they will map out, build, and maintain the routes that voters will take to park, enter, and exit the voting center. Poll workers will be on-site to help direct voters, and plastic chains and signs will help distinguish lines for entering and exiting.
The voting center will have two main entrances on the North and South sides of the gym. It will be open for 11 days: Oct. 24 through Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Nov. 3 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Curbside voting and regular parking will be available for voters in Parking Structure 3.
There will not be a ballot drop-box at the voting center. Vote-by-mail ballots can be dropped off at Marine Park, Virginia Avenue Park and other locations in Santa Monica that are near the campus and accessible to the SMC community.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted a clip highlighting voting centers at some of L.A.’s most iconic locations on Oct. 7, including Dodger Stadium and The Wiltern Theatre. More drop-off stations and additional in-person voting centers can be found online at lavote.net.
