By Ana Gomez Salcido
Almost 300,000 Latinos registered to vote in San Diego County for the California Primary Election this Tuesday, June 7.
“It’s important to vote and show our participation as Latinos,” said one of San Diego voters, Hector Ibarra. “I saw all of the candidates on the news and online and I and chose the best one.”
Many voters have said that they considered every candidate and compared them to see which one that has the best interest for the Latino population.
“I can’t vote because I’m a resident not yet a citizen, but I bring my son so he can vote because voting is important. It is when the citizens are heard,” said Chula Vista resident Cecilia Murad.
Polling places were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and had a lot of voters throughout the day, especially senior citizens.
“For 22 years I have worked as a poll worker. In every election there is a lot of people voting. We saw a lot of people registered that wanted to change parties so they could vote for the candidates they wanted to vote for,” said poll worker Mirna Greenman.
People that were registered as a nonpartisan voter or as no party preference could vote in the presidential primary election for the American Independent, Democratic, and Libertarian candidates. Those wanting to vote for the Green, Peace and Freedom, and Republican candidates, they needed to be registered in those parties.
A total of 1,523,251 people registered to vote in San Diego County. In total, 561,984 county voters were registered as Democrats, 491,843 were registered as Republican, 399,299 were registered as non-partisan, and 70,125 registered as other.
San Diego County Registrar of Voters representative, Sirenia Jimenez said that a 55 to 60 percent turnout was expected this Tuesday.