Voter Turnout Low in County's Primary Election

OAKLAND-Voter turnout was low across Alameda County yesterday and the ballot-counting process proceeded without incident, officials said last night.

Turnout was about 35 percent of registered voters, said Alameda County Registrar of Voters spokesperson Guy Ashley, which was expected given that there were no high-profile races this election.

Ashley said he expected the majority of the ballots to be counted by 1 a.m.

Ashley also said up to half the ballots cast in this election were absentee, which significantly decreased the workload at the ballot processing facility in downtown Oakland last night.

Throughout the evening, election officials and volunteers dropped off red bags containing ballots, voter rosters and memory cards from the voting machines at the Oakland facility normally used by the U.S. Postal Service. About 40 election officials then inventoried the bags and entered the information into the computer database in a highly organized effort.

Most absentee ballots were counted throughout the week and were reported shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. However, those ballots cast yesterday at 805 polling stations across the county had to be physically returned for processing to the Oakland center. Ashley said this accounted for the delay of the reporting of ballots until about 10 p.m.

No problems were reported at any of the county polling stations, Ashley said, and many polling sites were quiet throughout the day. A polling site at the Unit 3 residence hall at UC Berkeley had three voters cast their ballots and seven drop off absentee ballots by 4:45 p.m.

Poll worker Monte Harrison, who has worked the Unit 3 poll six times, said this was the lowest turnout he had ever seen, saying it was particularly low because the election was not held during the academic year.

The election cost $4 million and took 4,000 poll workers and election officials, Ashley said. The cost is supposed to be reimbursed by the state.

Ashley Trott of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.

Tags: ALAMEDA COUNTY REGISTRAR OF VOTERS