November election ballots arrive in Malibu mailboxes Play

Many Malibu residents received their November election ballots in their mailboxes Monday. The state attorney general says California voters should, for the time being, feel safe mailing their ballots back via the U.S. mail. But the issue gets more dicey as we approach the end of the election period on Nov. 3.

There have been late postmark issues in California with the U.S. Postal Service, and only ballots postmarked before Nov. 3 will be counted.

As we get closer to the final election date, drop-off boxes will start to appear — probably next week — where people can bypass the U.S. mail system entirely. And 10 days before the election, several hundred early voting centers will open across L.A. County, where voters can hand ballots in under the watchful eye of elections officials, with no U.S. mail involved.

L.A. County allows every voter to track the status of their ballot online, to see when it arrived and when it was counted.