LAKE COUNTY — Today is Election Day, and polls around Lake County await a higher than usual number of voters between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., according to Lake County Registrar of Voters Dianne Fridley.
“Presidential elections, general elections are usually the busiest elections,” Fridley said.
With two of the county”s most contested races at least a 40-minute drive or more away from her office on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport, Fridley said it could take elections staff until approximately 11:30 p.m. or later to count the ballots.
“Lakeport is going to be one of the first ones that comes in. It”s a toss-up who comes in first ? Middletown or Clearlake,” Fridley said.
Fridley said poll workers must go through an approximately hour-long process before closing down and packing up the equipment and heading to Lakeport to have the votes counted. County Supervisor District 1, where two candidates vie to fill the open seat on the county board of supervisors, has 27 precincts that are consolidated into nine locations.
“First of all they have a ballot statement they have to complete, and they have to record the number of unused ballots, provisional ballots, spoiled ballots, voted ballots and the number of signatures on the roster index, and that should all add up,” Fridley said.
Six candidates vie for three open seats on the Clearlake City Council, and six candidates vie for three open seats on the Lakeport City Council.
While updating the number of ballots received in her office Monday, Fridley said the turnout for today”s presidential election may be higher than her original estimate of 75 percent. She said the office was busier than usual on Monday, with voters calling with questions and people turning in ballots over the counter in an almost constant stream.
Fridley said her office issued a record number of vote-by-mail ballots during this election. Of the 17,405 vote-by-mail ballots issued, 59 percent were returned as of Monday. The vote-by-mail ballots represent just less than half of the county”s registered voters.
For more information or to register, call the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office at 263-2372. Election results will be updated as they are counted and posted to the County of Lake Web site, www.co.lake.ca.us. For full election coverage, see the Wednesday edition of the Record-bee.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
