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Information about local county measures absent from Kern County elections website

Posted at 5:02 PM, Feb 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-13 15:33:04-05

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — California's primary election is less than three weeks away, scheduled to be part of Super Tuesday on March 3, instead of its usual time in June.

Information about local measures affecting Kern County, including two marijuana measures, are not on the Kern County election website.

This information is usually posted on the county’s website weeks in advance but with only three weeks until the March primary, it doesn’t appear that there’s any information about local measure D, measure E, nor anything about the Wasco or McFarland School bond measures.

23ABC asked the local residents if they were concerned about the lack of information on the County’s website. Several of them said they feel uninformed.

“It seems a little difficult for me to find a non-bias explanation of what’s going on,” said local resident Miranda Moser. “I feel like I have to dig a little more into that before, figure out how I'm going to vote.”

Kern County sent out mail-in-ballots starting Feb. 3. 23ABC reached out to Kern County officials to ask why information about those measures weren’t posted on the county website.

County spokeswoman Megan Person said she was not able to confirm Wednesday but sent a link to the state’s elections website vote.ca.gov. However, information about local measures wasn’t posted on that website either.

Allen Bolar, a political science professor at Bakersfield College suggested a few websites that are reliable for information about the local measures.

Cal Matters is one of them, there are places like Ballotopedia, which shows all the different propositions and gives a pretty good rundown,” Bolar said.

County officials confirmed to 23ABC that information on local measures is not on the election’s website, but they have not said why.

23ABC reached out to the Secretary of State’s Office to ask if California counties are struggling with preparation with the primary election being moved up to March. They have not yet responded.