Outreach Community Newsletter January 2026

In 2026, California and San Francisco voters will help shape the future at every level of government—from local leadership to statewide offices and federal representation. Across California, voters will participate in the June 2 Primary Election and the November 3 General Election, selecting candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, the State Legislature, and a range of constitutional offices, including the governor’s contest. In San Francisco, voters will also see Board of Supervisors and Board of Education contests, along with other local contests and measures on the ballot.

While the June Primary Election may seem far away, starting early outreach helps ensure voters are informed, prepared, and ready to participate when the election arrives. This outreach can take many forms, including encouraging voters to check and update their voter registration, select a language preference for election materials, or sign up to serve as a poll worker to assist voters at local polling places.

We hope you’ll help us start these conversations in your communities and motivate voters to take early steps that make participating in the election easier.

Keeping voter registration information current is one of the simplest and most important ways voters can make sure their voices are heard in every election. Everyday life changes, like moving, changing a name, updating a political party preference, or choosing to receive election materials in a different language can all affect a voter’s registration record.

To make this process easier, the Department of Elections offers an Update Your Voter Registration Record tool. This tool helps voters identify what information they need to update and guides them to the correct next steps. Many minor updates, such as changing a mailing address or contact information, can be completed quickly by phone, email, or through this online form. More significant changes, including a name change, updating your party preference, or moving to a new address, require voters to re-register online at registertovote.ca.gov.

We encourage you to take action now by sharing this information with your communities—post it on social media, include it in newsletters, and highlight it at community events. By working together, we can help ensure every eligible voter is registered, informed, and ready to participate in the next election.

San Francisco will offer eligible non-citizen residents the opportunity to vote in local Board of Education contests in both the June and November elections.

To be eligible to vote in the 2026 Board of Education elections, non-citizen residents must live in San Francisco, be at least 18 years old on Election Day, and be a parent, legal guardian, or caregiver of a child who lives in San Francisco and will be under 19 on Election Day. Eligible voters must also not be currently incarcerated for a felony conviction and must not have been found mentally incompetent to vote by a court.

Non-citizen voters must register separately for each election in which they wish to participate using the Non-Citizen Voter Registration (NCV) Form. The form is available in more than 40 languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Arabic. Forms can be requested by calling the Department of Elections at (415) 554-4375, printed from sfelections.gov/NCV, or picked up in person at City Hall, Room 48. Before registering to vote, non-citizen residents may wish to consult with an immigration attorney or a trusted immigrant-rights organization.

If your organization plans to conduct outreach to non-citizen voters, we would be happy to support your efforts by offering a workshop on voter registration activities and sharing additional information about the voting process. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested or have any questions.

Based on new state guidance, the Department of Elections is taking steps to make voting even more accessible for voters who prefer to receive election information in languages other than English.

In December 2025, the California Secretary of State issued updated language determinations identifying communities in certain city precincts where additional language support may be needed. As a result, San Francisco will begin offering translated facsimile ballots, which voters may reference when marking their official ballots, in five additional languages: Bengali, Hindi, Hmong, Mongolian, and Urdu. These languages will join the state-required languages in which we already provide facsimile ballots: Burmese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai.

San Francisco will continue to provide translated ballots and election materials in Chinese and Spanish under federal law and in Filipino under the City’s Language Access Ordinance. The Department also expects to expand materials to include Vietnamese as the City adopts Vietnamese as a required language in 2026.

To reflect the availability of these new language services, the Department is updating its website, voter tools, the Voter Information Pamphlet, polling place signage, and outreach materials. We are also making a concerted effort to recruit bilingual poll workers and to connect with community-based organizations that serve these language communities. Next month, we will send targeted mailers to inform voters about their options to request facsimile ballots in these newly added languages.

We invite you to join our Language Accessibility Advisory Committee (LAAC) and help strengthen voting access for limited-English and non-English-speaking residents in San Francisco. LAAC members play an important role in advising the Department of Elections on how to improve language access and better serve our diverse communities.

Our first LAAC meeting of 2026 will take place on February 19, from 2 p.m.–3 p.m. During the meeting, we’ll share updates on recent language access projects and welcome feedback and ideas on how the Department can continue to improve services for voters with limited English proficiency.

If you’re interested in participating, please sign up to become a LAAC member at sfelections.org/laacform.

As we prepare for the 2026 Elections, we’re inviting poll workers and temporary elections staff to join our team to help ensure a positive voting experience for voters across the city.

We’ll be recruiting approximately 2,500 poll workers and hiring dozens of temporary elections staff to support the many tasks involved in delivering free, fair, and functional elections for San Francisco voters. Poll workers play an important role on Election Day by assisting voters and providing accessible, inclusive services at polling places across the city and earn $225–$295 for their service.

If you—or someone you know—are interested in serving as a poll worker in 2026, we encourage you to complete a Poll Worker Interest Form. For questions about poll worker service, please contact our Poll Worker Team at (415) 554-4395 or visit our Poll Worker Service webpage.

In addition to poll workers, the Department will be hiring temporary elections staff for a variety of roles before, during, and after the election. These positions include Bilingual Translators and Proofreaders, Bilingual Voter Support Phone Operators, Voter Records Clerks, Logic and Accuracy Testers, warehouse support staff, and Election Day staff supporting polling place operations.

To learn more about current openings and how to apply, please visit the Department of Elections’ Employment and Volunteer Opportunities webpage.

To kick off the new year, and all the opportunities it brings for us to connect with San Franciscans where they are, our outreach team was busy engaging with residents across the city.

We hosted voter resource tables at the SFPL Main Branch, the Citywide Job Fair, the UN Plaza Farmer’s Market and the Curry Senior Center Older Adults Health & Wellness Expo, helping register new voters and sharing information on the 2026 Elections, accessible resources, and language registration eligibility.

This past month, we also met residents at Glide and Project Homeless Connect, helping to ensure that all San Franciscans, including residents with a criminal justice history or experiencing housing insecurity, have the information and resources needed to exercise their right to register and vote!

We are so grateful for all our wonderful outreach partners and look forward to working with you in 2026 to inform, engage, and support San Francisco voters!

Here are a few highlights from our recent events:

Shared information on accessible resources with attendees

Helped register new voters and distributed information on the 2026 elections

Assisted job seekers with poll worker applications for the June 2026 Election

Thank you for reading this month’s edition! We’ll be back in February with more election updates and highlights from our outreach across San Francisco. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay connected, share these resources with your communities, and reach out if you have any questions or ideas.

Warmly,
Your Outreach Team: Nataliya, Anmarie, Adriana, Max, and Edgar