Some voters had to wait in line to cast a ballot, but the first day of widespread in-person voting in Orange County appears to have gone well overall.
On Friday, Oct. 30, 168 vote centers around the county opened their doors so people could vote in a booth, return a mail ballot, or at some locations, drive through and hand their ballot to a poll worker without leaving their car.
By 11:30 a.m., a steady stream of voters flowed into the Huntington Beach Civic Center, but the line was never more than about six people deep and moved quickly. A city worker took voters’ temperatures before they entered the building, and while most voters complied with the request to wear a face covering, poll workers were ready to usher those not wearing a mask to an area at more of a distance from the other voting booths.
Some who arrived expecting a wait were pleasantly surprised. Huntington Beach resident Domenico Miuccio said after seeing news coverage of other cities and states, “it seemed like it would be over two, three hours” to cast a ballot – but instead, “it was super easy.”
Miuccio said he felt comfortable with the precautions being used to prevent the spread of COVID-19: the temperature check, a fresh pen for every voters, and frequent sanitizing of voting booths and other equipment.
Because of concerns about the virus, Hugo Saucedo, 32, opted not to wait in line and instead stopped at the drop box in front of the civic center, leaning down to peer into the slot as he slid his ballot in.
“I think it’s more secure, more safe because it’s the official one,” he said.
Around 1 p.m., the line was somewhat longer at the Thomas LaSorda Field House in Yorba Linda, with a poll worker occasionally walking up and down to see if anyone was just dropping off a mail ballot.
That’s what Eric Buck, a 41-year-old Yorba Linda resident, would have done, except he thought the mail ballot he received was missing a school board race he’s eligible to vote in, he said.
While waiting in line to vote in person, Buck said he’s “pretty confident” the election will be secure and his vote will be counted. “I believe in the system,” he said, adding he thinks the assertion that this is the most important election in decades is over hyped.
“It’s always important to vote, but I don’t know that this is the be-all, end-all,” he said.
It took Alice Monroe, of Fullerton, about 20 minutes to get through the line to vote at the field house. “I just feel safer that my vote went in and I don’t have to depend on the postal service,” she said.
The closer the election gets, the less Orange County residents seem to be counting on the U.S. mail to deliver their ballots.
About 10 days before vote centers opened, roughly a quarter of mail ballots were being returned via drop boxes and the rest came via USPS. But as of Friday, Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said the two return methods were about even, and “especially in the later weeks we’re seeing a lot more usage of the drop boxes.”
Nearly 775,000 mail ballots had been returned through Thursday, according to the registrar’s data. The county has about 1.77 million registered voters.
By about 3 p.m. Friday, vote centers had handled about 42,000 in-person voters, with about 10,000 of those coming just in the prior two hours, Kelley said. “That’s really strong activity.”
Huntington Beach resident Maria Kalima, 72, said she decided to turn in her mail ballot in person after hearing about someone setting fire to a drop box (one such case happened last week in Baldwin Park).
Miuccio said he’s wary of mail-in ballots and added, “I don’t trust the system per se – I’d rather see it go through myself.” At Orange County vote centers, voters scan their own ballot into a machine after filling it out and can verify that it was accepted.
Damon Aoki, 50, of Huntington Beach, said he visited to the civic center with his son, who wanted to vote in person while Aoki dropped off his mail ballot.
“I’m confident that my vote’s going to be counted because we’re voting prior to election day,” Aoki said – but he still planned to use the registrar’s online tracker to make sure his ballot was checked in and processed.
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October 31, 2020 at 07:32AM
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Voters report smooth operations on first day Orange County’s 168 voting centers are open - OCRegister
"smooth" - Google News
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