Want your election ballot early? Text the elections office.

MARTINEZ — As part of its effort to get more people to vote by mail, the Contra Costa County Elections Office is launching an option to sign up for mail-in ballots by texting the elections office.

The goal, elections staff say, is to make it easier for people to register for its vote by mail system and to get more people to vote overall.

Vote by mail is a more convenient way for people to vote, said Joe Canciamilla, the county’s clerk-recorder and registrar of voters. “They can do it at home, with friends, and take their time with it.”

It’s also a more secure method, he said, and allows voters to track their ballot. After filling out their ballot, voters can either mail it back to the elections office or drop it off at polling places and a number of drop-off locations.

Proponents say voting by mail can increase the chances that people will vote because it opens more opportunities for them to do so.

“We’re trying to engage people who are not necessarily politically engaged and aware,” said Brandon Evans, a community organizer in Richmond. “People don’t have time to stop with the day-to-day hustle. This makes it easier.”

Mariana Moore, senior director at Ensuring Opportunity — a group that campaigns to end poverty in the county — said it’s important to engage people at all income levels to vote and have a say in the policies and politicians who will affect their lives. Voting by mail can increase opportunities for people who have long commutes, multiple jobs or other barriers to getting to their polling places on Election Day.

Increasing options to sign up for that — by texting or emailing or other methods — helps, too, Moore said.

“There are parts of country where there are efforts to make it harder for people to vote,” she said. “What I see the elections office doing to make it easier — it shouldn’t be a revolutionary thing, but somehow in this environment, it feels like it.”

There are benefits for the elections office, too, in switching more people to mailed ballots. It would allow the office to deploy resources more efficiently, Canciamilla said — less people voting at the booths mean less cost to manage voting booths. It also would enable the elections office to process more ballots early if people drop them off or mail them in before Election Day, allowing for a more detailed count of returns on election night.

The push toward voting by mail follows what has already been a shift by voters themselves. About 70 percent of Contra Costa voters are registered to vote by mail. In Alameda County, it was about the same percent as of November’s election.

Some counties — including Santa Clara, San Mateo, Napa and a number of others have switched to models under the state Voter’s Choice Act in which every voter is mailed a ballot and can either send them back or drop them off at voting center open to any county resident where ballots can be cast days before the election.

Contra Costa has not switched to that model yet because the requirement under the law for the office to provide voting centers days before the election would increase the cost of elections “dramatically,” Canciamilla said, but the county is trying to spread the word to encourage more voters to sign up for mail-in ballots and will have about a dozen locations where people can drop off their ballots at any hour of the day.

Canciamilla himself recently switched to the vote-by-mail model, prompted by the “crazy” parking at his local polling place and the desire for a convenient way to work on his ballot at home, taking his time with it.

He thinks it’s the way of the future.

“The old way of going to a neighbor’s garage and being able to cast a ballot and meet up with friends — those days are gone,” he said.

And while many lament the idea of not being able to get an “I Voted” sticker — Contra Costa elections staff reassure voters that those stickers are available at ballot drop-off stations.

“I don’t think it’ll be long before it goes from being voluntary to being mandatory,” Canciamilla said of the vote-by-mail system. “With over 70 percent of voters using vote-by-mail — at that point, the value of maintaining polling places, poll workers, all of the expense that comes with running that, it’s not going to be justifiable.”

Those interested in signing up for vote-by-mail can text “CoCoBallot” to 2Vote (28683) and follow the prompts from a link that is sent back. It requires entering the voter’s name, date of birth and address. Residents can also send an email to Ballot@vote.cccounty.us, call the elections office at 925-335-7800 or visit the office at 555 Escobar St. in Martinez.