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<p>A high turnout between 72 and 77 percent was expected this Election Day in the region by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Throughout the county, large crowds were seen at most of the 1,552 polling places in the County, including at the Registrar’s office located in Kearny Mesa.<br>
“Voting and having our voice to be heard are our rights,” said San Diego resident Jose Luis Martinez, who cast his ballot at the registrar on Tuesday afternoon. “I do this every time because we see on the news that the polls are crowded in the morning.”<br>
Mariana Bustamante, Voter Outreach Coordinator of the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, explained there are more people voting in the early mornings and the late afternoons because people have to work.<br>
San Diegans were able to vote through different methods, such as voting in person and through a mail ballot. Before Election Day, the San Diego County Registrar received 500,000 out of the more than 1 million mail ballots that were sent to voters.<br>
“It is good that there are options because people can decide what they want,” San Diego resident Ruth Gonzalez said. “There are people that can’t vote in person, but they can easily still vote through the mail.”<br>
Voters who didn’t send their mail-in ballot were able to turn in their ballot on Election Day at any polling location, including the Registrar of Voters, were a tent was set up to exclusively receive mail-in ballots.<br>
“More than 60 percent of County voters use mail ballots and that number continues to rise,” said County Registrar Michael Vu. “It’s convenient for the voter, it helps with the timely return of mail ballots, and decreases the high volume of voters dropping off mail ballots at polling places on Election Day.”<br>
A total of 1,652,862 people registered to vote in this election in San Diego County, where 609,427 registered as democrats, 501,569 registered as republicans, 461,843 registered as non-partisan, and 80,023 registered as other.<br>
“I came to vote before people started to get off work. I didn’t spend more than half an hour here even though I fixed my voter registration and casted my vote”, said Chula Vista resident, Rebecca Sotura. “The “atmosphere here on Election Day was really great.”</p>