San Diego's Registrar Urges Absentee Voters to Get Ballots in Soon

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 31, 2008 at 1:18 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego County's Registrar of Voters is urging voters who have absentee ballots, to send them in soon. Debra Seiler says changes in the way the votes will be counted this year mean the vote tally wi

San Diego County's Registrar of Voters is urging voters who have absentee ballots, to send them in soon. Debra Seiler says changes in the way the votes will be counted this year mean the vote tally will take longer. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

All the paper ballots will have to be brought to the Registrar's office to be counted this year, instead of being counted at the polling places. That's because the Registrar hasn't been able to purchase enough tally machines for every precinct.

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Seiler says if too many people wait till the last minute to cast their vote, the results may not even be tallied by the next morning.

Seiler: We're very hopeful that voters will put those absentee ballots in the mail to us right away, if they don't have time to put them in the mail Saturday at the latest we hope they'll ring them to our office or drop them off at any polling place. Our office will also be open for voting and for drop-off this coming Saturday.

Almost a third of San Diegans have signed up as permanent absentee voters. But because of last minute changes in the presidential primary races many have waited to make their decision.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.