Things got off to a smooth and “eerily quiet” start at the Registar of Voters’ headquarters early Tuesday as San Diego County voters began casting ballots.
“No major issues thus far — seems like everything is operating fine,” Registrar of Voters Michael Vu said. “It has been quiet thus far, quieter than I expected for a presidential primary.
“We will see if it ultimately picks up.”
Vu said there were more reporters than voters as polls opened at the registrar’s main office on Overland Avenue in Kearny Mesa at 7 a.m.
Advertisement
Voters began casting their ballots early Tuesday at the county Registar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa on Super Tuesday.
(John Gibbins / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Vu recalled that voting in November 2018 also was quiet in the morning and during the day, but ended with heavy turnout in the evening.
By mid-morning, Vu had heard of one problem in an East County precinct: A precinct inspector had failed to show up with paper ballots so voters were directed to use touch-screen ballot-marking devices instead.
Each precinct has backup systems in place so that voters can vote even if problems occur.
Advertisement
“Any individual going to that site, they’ll be voting on that ballot-marking device,” he said. “If the paper ballots are not there, we go to our backup.”
Around 1:30 p.m., Rachael Ledger had registered to vote and cast her ballot at the registrar’s office in Kearny Mesa. The 25-year-old Imperial Beach resident said she left her downtown office prepared for the experience to take hours.
“It was actually very easy,” she said. “It was like a 10-minute process. It was great.”
Jacqueline Bazinet of City Heights dropped off her mail-in ballot at the same location but without leaving her car, handing it over at one of the many drive-through stations set up around the county.
“Why not mail it in?” said the 51-year-old. “I was in Oklahoma last week for a business trip, and I did not have the foresight, and honestly, I’m a procrastinator.
“I love having this situation,” she added.
People still holding onto mail-in ballots, and would like to change their votes, can have the ballots voided at their assigned polling place or the registrar’s main office. That is especially pertinent for people who voted for a candidate in the presidential primary who has since dropped out of the race, election officials said.
There are 1,548 polling places in the county, with 8,000 poll workers hired to staff them. In addition to the main office, the registrar’s office opened four satellite offices in San Marcos, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Spring Valley and Chula Vista to serve voters.
Advertisement
Voters who received a ballot in the mail can return those to the registrar’s office, one of the satellite locations or any precinct. Currently about 73 percent of San Diego County’s voters — about 1.3 million people — cast their ballots by mail.
Even though the ballots come with prepaid postage, Vu suggested people drop off their ballots at this point, rather than risk having them delivered by U.S. postal service in time.
“That is chancing it because it has to be postmarked and received within three days. If it is not in our hands Friday, it can’t be eligible to be verified and counted,” he said.
Over the weekend, the county opened the four satellite offices to give people the chance to vote early. That’s when a minor glitch caused by a training problem was discovered.
In fewer than 30 cases, voters were given wrong ballots by mistake.
The county had printed 314 different types of ballots to include all the contests voted on by registered voters.
“It was a training issue that we identified,” Vu said. “They were handing (out) an incorrect ballot. The impacted voters had contests on theirs that they were ineligible to vote on.”
Vu said the problem was quickly identified and election workers contacted each of the impacted voters on Saturday and Sunday at their homes to correct the mistake.
"smooth" - Google News
March 04, 2020 at 07:19AM
https://ift.tt/38maxg0
Voting in San Diego County gets off to a smooth start - The San Diego Union-Tribune
"smooth" - Google News
https://ift.tt/30JhCVH
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Voting in San Diego County gets off to a smooth start - The San Diego Union-Tribune"
Post a Comment