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Politics

Unprecedented Early Turnout In San Diego County Heading Into Historic Election Day

A poll worker assists a voter at the San Diego Registrar of Voters. Nov. 1, 2020.
Matthew Bowler
A poll worker assists a voter at the San Diego Registrar of Voters. Nov. 1, 2020.

As of Sunday morning, the San Diego County Registrar of voters reported receiving 1.1 million mail ballots in what voters see as an era-defining election. That’s about 300,000 more than the county received during the entire 2016 election.

San Diego County’s Registrar of Voters Michael Vu says this means that 60% to 70% of all the votes could be counted by the time the first wave of results are released on election night.

Unprecedented Early Turnout In San Diego County Heading Into Historic Election Day
Listen to this story by Joe Hong.

“That’s a really good showing,” Vu said. “That first set of results on election night is going to be a pretty large percentage of the overall votes cast that we will report out.”

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RELATED: First Day Of In-Person Voting Gets Underway In San Diego County

Vu said that in-person voting at the polls has been going smoothly so far. By Sunday morning, the Registrar of Voters reported that 28,108 San Diego County voters had cast their ballots in person. Saturday was the first day of in-person voting.

Gay Davis was one of those voters. The East San Diego resident cast her ballot at the county registrar’s office on Sunday.

“I feel that we are going backwards in civil rights and other areas, and I’ve never seen it like this before,” she said. “Everyone is talking about it, but we need to do something about it, and voting is one of the important things we can do.”

RELATED: Computer Woes Slow Riverside County Voting

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Davis was accompanied by her 18-year-old granddaughter who was voting for the first time. Nineteen-year-old Thomas Glatt was among other young San Diegans voting in person.

“I think that democracy is really on the ballot this year. I think we have forces in this country that are trying to undermine the vote, even in this state with the fake ballot boxes,” he said. “I’m just really concerned about the sanctity of my vote and people around the country, especially in more marginalized communities.”

In-person voting at the county’s 235 super polling locations will continue through election day.

Video: Unprecedented Early Turnout In SD County Heading Into Historic Election Day