Tuesday is the 2024 Presidential Election and the last day to cast your ballot in San Diego County.

All Vote Centers or ballot drop boxes will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Any voter who is in line at a vote center or an official ballot drop box at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote. However, no one can join the line after the 8 p.m. deadline. For those voting by mail, ensure your ballot will be postmarked by Nov. 5 for your vote to count.

So far, about 830,000 people have returned their mail-in ballots and another 42,000 voters have cast their ballots early and in person.

If you’re not registered to vote and want to participate in the election, you may visit any vote center to conditionally register and vote provisionally through Nov. 5.

We have what you need to know below:

When is the 2024 General Election in San Diego County?

Election Day for the 2024 General Election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. All polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. San Diego County voters had the option of submitting their ballots early by either using drop boxes across the county or by voting at an official Vote Center.

Where can I find a vote center?

San Diego County has hundreds of locations across San Diego County. It is not necessary to go to a specific polling place. Instead, voters can head to the location most convenient for them to vote in person, drop off their completed mail ballots, or register to vote as a conditional voter.

Voters can check whether they are registered here.

Find a vote center near you with this map or this list

When are ballots due in San Diego County?

Ballots are due when the polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.

Anyone in line at a vote center by 8 p.m. on Election Day will be able to cast their ballot in person.

For those mailing their ballots through the USPS, ensure yours will be postmarked on Tuesday. If you’re unsure, drop your ballot at a secure drop box location before 8 p.m.

Can I vote by mail this year?

Yes, voting by mail is encouraged. Every registered voter in California will receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the 2024 General Election.

First, make sure your ballot is ready to go by signing and dating your return envelope and sealing your ballot inside.

Then, find a ballot-box dropoff location near you or return to any U.S. Postal Service blue box starting on Oct. 8.

Your return envelope must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the Registrar’s office within seven days following Election Day.

Can I vote online in San Diego County?

No, California does not allow online voting.

The city of San Diego is set to clear homeless encampments at the San Diego Riverbed, posting notices early Monday to tell people who live there that they have to collect their belongings and leave by 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

It’s a coordinated effort with multiple agencies — the first of its kind at the riverbed, the culmination of months of outreach efforts paid for by millions of dollars in state funding.

The bright green notices posted early Monday indicate the city plans to perform the abatement within 24 hours.

Outreach workers from People Assisting the Homeless have been in the riverbed for months, working to find housing and offer supportive services to those living there.

“The abatement is going to happen no matter what, like it was going to happen. So it was: Do they abate and keep doing the same thing that they’ve been doing, abating ticketing, arresting and throwing people’s stuff away so we have to start over?” said Autumn McCann, of PATH. “Or do we partner together and provide the case management services first and try to get people everything that they need?”

San Diego Riverpark Foundation’s latest census numbers, released last month, show an estimated 423 people were believed to be living along the riverbed.

San Diego’s homeless crisis only continues to grow. Now, we have new numbers highlighting one local hotspot — the San Diego Riverbed. NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer explains.

McCann spent all Monday in the riverbed near where Interstate 5 and Interstate 8 intersect to try and get those remaining there into some form of shelter, like to the city’s safe sleeping sites or into temporary housing.

She said MTS, lifeguards, Caltrans and the city will all be involved in the abatement Tuesday morning, with a lifeguard boat brought in as well as a crane that will lift loads of debris from the riverbed.

“I really don’t want to see any of my clients being ticketed or arrested,” McCann said. “I don’t want that to happen, so I’m a little stressed and pressed, but I am feeling confident that we can help the majority of the people that are still left out there.”

“It gets depressing, and I’m already depressed, so it just makes it more worse,” said Joseph Miller. He’s been living on the streets for six years and came to the San Diego Riverbed about a month before the notices went up.

“I didn’t think this was going to happen, you know?” he said. “They’re washing us out.”

“This is about providing assistance, providing resources and then going in and doing the abatement, doing the cleanup, restoring this area back to what it was,” said city spokesman Matt Hoffman.

The effort is paid for with $3.6 million in state grants awarded the city of San Diego from California’s Encampment Resolution Funds. That’s part of a total of $17 million in grants awarded the city, San Diego County and the city of Santee under those funds last June.

The funding used to clear the riverbed can be spent on rental subsidies, outreach work, supportive services and more.

“This is about building and providing resources that people need to get out of homelessness and not return to homelessness,” Hoffman said. “That’s part of the benefit of this grant. These funds are flexible so that somebody something doesn’t work for someone, we can try something else.”

The city said, after months of outreach, individuals still in the riverbed Tuesday morning will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Officials said the timing of the abatement process – beginning on Election Day – was a coincidence, put into motion when the city applied for the Encampment Resolution Fund grants in 2023. The abatement process will continue all week as the city looks to get ahead of the king time and the upcoming rainy season.

Miller said he planned to take the offer to go to O Lot, one of the city’s safe sleeping sites. He said he plans to take care of some medical issues then look for work — still hopeful he can get back on his feet.

“I couldn’t pass up this, you know? Land of opportunities out here,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of things to do out here in San Diego.”

A San Diego man who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl while the pair were passengers on a cross-country flight was sentenced Monday to two years in prison.

Ryan Coffey admitted in a plea agreement to giving the teen rum and inappropriately touching the girl, who he did not know, on a Jan. 7, 2023, American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to San Diego.

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that another passenger on the plane overheard the girl tell Coffey — who was 31 years old at the time — that she was underage.

“When he heard that she’s afraid of flying, he took a bottle of alcohol out of [his] bag and said it would help her relax,” prosecutors wrote.

The girl later reported the abuse to a friend.

“Thanks to the courage of a brave girl who reported what happened in the dark on a plane and swift engagement from law enforcement, this defendant was brought to justice,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in August 2024 when Coffey pleaded guilty. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to protecting the public in the air, on the ground, or at sea.”

Coffey pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of abusive sexual contact of a minor on an aircraft and received the maximum sentence for that crime.