Strong early turnout ahead of Tuesday led to a busy Election Day at voting centers in Sonoma and Napa counties, where thousands of people cast ballots or voted in person.
Residents of Sonoma and Napa counties voted in large numbers Tuesday, reflecting the historic participation of voters across the country in a presidential race widely seen as crucial to the direction of the nation.
Strong early turnout ahead of Tuesday led to a busy election day at voting centers, with thousands of people casting ballots or voting in person.
In the first results after polls closed at 8 p.m., turnout was nearly 47% of registered voters, said Deva Marie Proto, Sonoma County’s registrar of voters. That figure included early, in-person voting and mail-in ballots processed as of Tuesday evening.
Proto said the turnout could rival that of 2020.
“We are already at 10,000 in-person voters today and we still have a few hours to go,” Proto said shortly after 6 p.m.
John Tuteur, Napa County’s registrar of voters, said turnout was higher than he expected, with long lines at several polling places. More than 1,000 people went to voting centers and chose to vote in person after returning their ballots.
“I’m amazed at the turnout we have, and it’s all in-person voting,” Tuteur said.
As for returns, Xioneida Ruiz of the Napa County elections office said “we’re a little behind 2020 numbers right now.”
“In 2020 there was a pandemic. A lot of people voted by mail and they voted early,” Ruiz said, noting that in-person ballots have not yet been counted.
In Sonoma County, voting centers saw many first-time voters motivated by the presidential election, as well as local ballot measures and races.
Citizens lined up outside voting centers before they opened in Sonoma County at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Many of them were eager to cast their first vote.
Marina Kleshinski, voting inspector at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building center, said it was the busiest she has seen it since 2020, when she started volunteering at elections.
“So many older first-time voters and younger first-time voters,” she said.
More than 81.9 million people had voted in the US before Tuesday, including more than 7.4 million in California, according to the Washingtonpost.
In Sonoma County, 49% of the roughly 310,000 registered voters had cast their ballots, Proto said Tuesday morning. At the end of Tuesday, that share in Napa was about 48%.
Amid the excitement of voting in such a consequential election, there was an undeniable amount of fear.
Two sisters leaving the polling place at Sheppard Accelerated Elementary School in Roseland said they marked their ballots in a way they hoped would most benefit the people they care about — one said they left the middle and had lower classes of her kind when she submitted her ballot.
The 23-year-old woman has been coy about her choice for president, but her sister, 30, came out in support of Kamala Harris because “I just feel like Trump says racist things.” Her parents emigrated from El Salvador and Mexico and live legally in the US, but what he says bothers her.
“I just wanted to exercise my right to vote,” she said. She declined to give her name.
Voting became a family affair for Felipa and Miguel Ayala, who arrived at the Elsie Allen High School voting center with their two adult children.
They were voting in a U.S. election for the second time, and son Miguel Ayala Jr., 29, said he encouraged everyone to make sure they got their ballots.
His sister, 27-year-old Jessica Ayala, said she researched the many state proposals online and helped her mother fill out their ballots ahead of time at home down the street.
Like other election locations, Elsie Allen High School’s voting center in Santa Rosa had a steady stream of voters Tuesday, with notable crowds in the morning and at lunch, said freshman pollster Jennifer Fitzgerald.
Many people showed up unsure if they could vote because they were not pre-registered. But they were shown how to fill out provisional ballots, which at one point were so low that more had to be acquired, she said.
“I’m glad tensions are low,” Fitzgerald said. “It was very easy.”
Alisse Galde voted Tuesday morning at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building. She was accompanied by her dog Coco, who wore an “I Voted” sticker as they left the building.
Galde said her main motivation for coming to the polls was women’s rights. She hasn’t voted regularly or been as involved in previous elections, but she said it’s more important than ever to fulfill her civic duty.
“The last few times I’ve been more participatory,” she said. “In our teens and early 20s, it felt like a lot more of us were sitting back and letting things spiral out of control.”
Galde said she has a friend who doesn’t vote because California is a safe “blue” state.
“I don’t feel that way,” she said. Even in her home, Santa Rosa, “it feels so divided.”
You can reach staff writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.