San Joaquin, Sacramento counties expect record voter turnout

More than 80 percent of San Joaquin and Sacramento county's registered voters are expected to vote in this year's presidential election, according to election officials in both counties.

With the excitement generated by the presidential race, San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman expects roughly 10 percent more people voting. The 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry attracted 69.24 percent in San Joaquin County, while the 2000 election between Bush and Al Gore drew 72.2 percent to the polls, Erdman said.

In Sacramento County, Campaign Services Manager Brad Buyse said he expects one of the highest turnouts ever. The highest since records started being kept in 1936 was 88.6 percent in 1964, when Democrat Lyndon Johnson beat Republican Barry Goldwater for the presidency.

"We think we're going to be right up in those lines," Buyse said. "We were getting packets of registration cards in the mail each day. We are now getting tubs and boxes. We get 500 to 600 new registration cards a day."

More than 21,000 voters have registered in Sacramento County since the June election alone, Buyse said.

Ironically, the lowest turnout in Sacramento County came in June of this year, when a mere 29 percent went to the polls, Buyse said.

To cope with the large crowd expected on Nov. 4, Erdman said he's making sure there are plenty of ballots at the polls and extra poll workers. There will be a little more emphasis on crowd control, especially when a lot of people come at the same time, Erdman said.

The county has 4,000 poll workers for the election, which is plenty, he said, but he needs about 100 volunteers to serve as runners, feed ballots into machines and sort ballots to look for write-in ballots. Anyone who wants to volunteer may call 468-2890.

Sacramento County ordered 115 percent of all precinct ballots to make sure no one goes without a ballot, Buyse said. There will be five poll workers per polling place. In previous elections, there have been either four or five.

To avoid long waits in line, Buyse suggests that voters mark their sample ballot at home before coming to the polling place and to come in the late morning or early afternoon.

"We're ready to go," he said.