June 4, 2012 - Election official: Outstanding mail ballots may hurt Solano County turnout hopes

Paper: Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA)
Title: Election official: Outstanding mail ballots may hurt Solano County turnout hopes
Date: June 4, 2012
Author: Sarah Rohrs/Times-Herald, Vallejo

For Solano County voters still holding onto their mail ballots for Tuesday's election, it's too late to mail them in, county officials said.

And that number could be quite a few, officials said.

A presidential primary election, Tuesday's ballot also features a number of local races, including Solano County Board of Supervisors Districts 1, 2 and 5, seats representing Vallejo, Benicia and Vacaville.

Voters also will decide the fate of Measure L to continue a library tax approved in 1998 for library services in Solano's seven cities.

Under a new primary system and new boundaries for state legislative and congressional seats, voters also face new choices in state legislative and congressional races. The local races combined with the presidential primary could boost voter turn-out to about 60 percent, said John Gardner, Solano County deputy registrar of voters.

But the number of outstanding vote-by-mail ballots is a source of worry, Gardner said.

As of Friday afternoon, Solano County Elections Division had received 33,032 vote-by-mail ballots.

But more than twice that many -- 77,552 -- had not yet been turned in, Gardner said. The bulk of those could come in over the weekend or on Monday, he added.

However, it's doubtful all will arrive in time as the county has received an average of 1,500 to 2,000 daily this past week, Gardner added.

"I'm probably more worried that the turn-out is going to be lower than we thought," Gardner said.

About half the nearly 197,000 people registered to vote in Solano County have signed up as permanent vote-by-mail voters, Gardner said. Those voters who have not yet mailed in their ballots must drop them off in person rather than rely on the U.S. Postal Service, Gardner said.

Ballots can be dropped off at the registrar 's office in the County Administration Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield. They also can be dropped off at any county polling place through 8 p.m. Tuesday. A list of all polling locations can be found online at s (look for information on the June 5 Presidential Primary).

Section: News
Record Number: 20776955
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