Absentee returns a growing trend

No predictions on voter turnout

The Daily Journal

Mendocino County Clerk Marsha Wharff says she's not predicting turnout for the March 2 election.

"You know, we stopped making those predictions when the recall election happened and we never restarted," she said.

One reason is that she hasn't had time to print out an analysis of the absentee ballot returns.

Wharff issued more than 10,000 absentee voter ballots for the March 2 election, 8,000 of which are for either permanent absentee voters or mail-in ballots for people who don't live near a polling place.

"We have trays of them" on hand already returned, she said, adding "More and more people are choosing to vote absentee, and there are more and more permanent absentee voters."

She also noted that additional absentee ballots will come in on Election Day because people can submit them directly to the polling place. Wharff said in the recall election last October, some 1,500 absentee ballots came in at the polls.

The absentee balloting, however, should not hold up election results on election night. Wharff says her staff began opening absentee ballots Wednesday. She added the results of those ballots will not be counted until 8 p.m. election night.

While Wharff is not making any predictions about turnout, she said she expects more than 50 percent of the county's 47,000 registered voters will go to the polls Tuesday.

"I would say it will be well attended in the 1st, 2nd and 4th supervisor districts, and the city of Ukiah. It will likely be lower in the 3rd and 5th districts, although the 5th always tends to vote heavy. We're hoping Measure H will bring in a big turnout."

Wharff also discussed a confounding situation in the March 2 election where senior citizens in the Walnut Village and Jack Simpson apartment complexes are being sent to the Ukiah Municipal Clubhouse to vote, even though both Walnut Village and Jack Simpson are polling places.

That happened, Wharff said, because when polling places were consolidated last year, residents north of those apartment complexes were moved into those polling places, and the residents at those polling places were moved south to accommodate the extra voters from the north.

"We didn't realize (the impact) at the time of the consolidations. We did it to try to get everybody in; we didn't want people having to travel far," she said.

Wharff agreed the arrangement is not ideal and said it will be corrected for the November election.

She also said the new optical scan voting machines worked well last year and will be back for this election. She said she still wants to have one touch screen balloting machine for each polling place for those with physical disabilities, but said she won't use them until they come with a paper verification system. She said she hopes to have them by the November election.