The results of Tuesday's primaries will set the stage for the better-known November elections.
Some voters are ready.
“I mailed in, and I’m checking online to see and make sure my ballot's been counted, and if it hasn't then I will go and vote in person tomorrow,” Oceanside resident Kane French said.
“I got my ballot all filled out, and I got to drop it at the drop box at the post office,” said Chris Dohrer, an Escondido resident.
But some voters weren't aware of an election.
"I kind of heard about it. I knew that they were collecting ballots at my job, actually, but I wasn't really sure what necessarily was being voted on, and I just never turned in my ballot," said Victoria Robbins, an Oceanside resident.
Oakdale resident Don Gonzalez remembered that there was an election when we interviewed him for this story.
“Well, since I didn't do the mail-in ballot, I should probably find my local voting box and go and vote," he said.
Political Data Inc.'s ballot tracker showed that less than 20% of ballots had been returned as of Monday. That’s despite the fact that every registered voter received a ballot in the mail.
UC San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser said low voter turnout for primary elections was always expected.
“Will this year look more like 2018, when the nation, and especially Democrats, were galvanized to overturn Congress and vote against Donald Trump? Or will it look like 2014, which was the lowest turnout percentage in CA state history?" he asked. The question for this election, he said, is what motivates voters to head to the polls.
“Democrats are hoping that their voters, who have been kind of demoralized by the travails of inflation and the Biden administration, they hope they have been reenergized through the leaked Supreme Court case and this continuing flood of mass killings. They hope that they remember just how big the stakes are of control of Congress of all parts of California going forward and will turn to the polls because of that," he said.
In-person voting locations can be found online, and mail-in ballots can be dropped off until 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
