S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show , the latest at the polls. And who's on the ballot this election day. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. So today is the last day to vote in this year's primary election. Polls close at 8 p.m. tonight , and ballots sent by mail need to be postmarked no later than today , June 2nd. KPBS Tami Murga has been catching up on how voting has been going so far , and she joins me now. Tami , welcome.
S2: Hi , J. Thank you for having me.
S1: It's always great to have you here. So you spent the morning down at the San Diego registrar's office checking in on how voting is going so far. So what can you tell us ? Yes.
S2: So registrar Sean Brahm spoke with reporters this morning ahead of the usual rush. Right. That we're expected to see on election nights. And he mostly broke down what we know so far about voter turnout in San Diego County. He says that as of this morning , early turnout is trending higher than the last two primaries. Here's the breakdown. He told us.
S3: Our roughly 24% turnout. We do see that increasing to the 35 to 40% range , just tracking as it has been in the past two primaries. We're slightly above that , which was a 34 and 35% turnout.
S1:
S2: I think , you know , one of them is the fact that it's the governor's race. And I think there's a lot of local races here as well that people are just really in tune with. And , you know , also one thing that interests me was saying that there's a lot of education that the registrar's office gets into throughout the year. And he was saying , you know , voter workshops , they go to multiple places across the county. They they hold them in 15 languages. So he really attributes a lot of that to people just being aware that it's important for them to drop off their ballots. Wow.
S1: Wow. And you also spoke with voters as well. What did they share with you ? Yeah.
S2: So I spoke with a couple. One of them was Rick Ciencia from Mira mesa. He says , you know , the the governor's race is really important to him. And that's really what kind of drove him and his wife to get out there and vote. And he he said he's a registered Democrat , but he's voting Republican at this time. And he said he's really fed up with how expensive it's gone in California under the new administration , including costs like vehicle electric vehicle fees. He says he drives an electric vehicle. And he says , you know , these fees on your annual DMV registration , something he's not very happy with. So this is what he told me about that.
S4: I happen to own a electric vehicle. I charge it up at home. I have solar , and now he's trying to tax me for that. So that's why I can't wait for him to be out. Wow.
S1: Wow. So ? So the cost of living again remains such a big issue for a lot of voters. Um , what do voters who've not submitted their ballot yet need to know ? Yeah.
S2: So , you know , again , it's Tuesday. Today's the very last day to vote. And if you haven't yet , you have until 8 p.m. and there's really multiple places you can go to. I believe there's 22 vote centers across the county. Um , and including , you know , the ROV and , you know , they should know as well that their ballots won't be part of the first unofficial results. That will be really shortly after 8 p.m.. But , um , you know , the updates later tonight , I think around 10 p.m. the votes that are cast today , those will be added. So I think that's something to watch out for very much.
S1:
S2: I mean , you still definitely want to get them in there. But as I mentioned , those will be counted afterwards , perhaps even in the couple of days coming. So watch out for those results.
S1: So , so I know we live in a right now kind of world where we want things fast. Unfortunately , you know , as you just said , we'll have to kind of wait on some of these races.
S2: And speaking to the registrar's office , you know , they mentioned after election night , additional unofficial election results will be posted on the following schedules , like , you know , Thursday again Friday and Monday. So every single day we'll be seeing new and new releases , those tallies being added. But you know , the date to keep in mind here is July 2nd. That's when the election results must be certified. So as we know , still several days ahead.
S1: Yeah a lot of factors here. Run and run them through though. I mean , to help voters understand why it may take results a bit longer.
S2: Yeah , I mean , it really as I mentioned , you know , you have to get these dropped off and the you have all these volunteers that are going through each of these tallies. And so that's only what comes in today. Right. In addition to the 470,000 that have already been submitted , those will be , as I mentioned , tallied in today. And in the coming days , we're going to look into all those Mail-In ballots , the provisional ballots as well. That should be tens of thousands as well. So it takes a while. Although , you know , we've heard Governor Newsom say that he wants these things. Uh , these these votes , these ballots counted as fast as possible. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , where can voters go to find last minute info on how and where to cast their ballots at this point ? Sure.
S2: One safe place to go to is SD dotcom. You'll have a map. You'll get to see the closest vote centers around you. And also at KPBS , we have a really good voter guide that can tell you where and the latest on these results. Wonderful.
S1: Wonderful. Well , stay tuned to KPBS for more this Election Day , and join us at 8 p.m. tonight for an Election Night live stream on YouTube , Facebook , and at PBS.org. I've been speaking with KPBS environment reporter Tammy Murga. Tammy , thank you so very much.
S2: Thank you for having me. Jade.
S1: After the break here. Perspective from political scientists about key races on the ballot. Midday edition is back in a bit. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. In keeping with our coverage of today's election , we want to make everything a little easier for you. So if you're still trying to find a place to vote or drop off your ballot , you can find all of that information on our website , pbs.org. Don't forget , places are open. Those polling places at least are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and of course , if you're looking for a crash course on a few of our top local races , look no further because we've got you covered there too. I'm joined now by Bryan Adams. He's a political science professor at San Diego State University and also Rick Epps. He is a political science professor at Imperial Valley College. Welcome to you both.
S5: Good to see you. Good to be here.
S1: Glad to have you both in here for this. Brian , you know , before we get into specifics here , I want to talk about what makes a primary unique. What do primary elections teach us about voting behavior ? Yeah.
S5: So primaries are designed to narrow down the candidates. And typically what you do in a primary is you narrow it down to one candidate for party per party. In California , we do it very differently. We do the top two primary where you have two people , regardless of party , advance into the November election. So our dynamics here are very , very different in California than pretty much most other states in the country in that we could potentially end up with situations where you get two Republicans or two Democrats advancing into the November election. Right.
S1: Right.
S6: Uh , you know , for example , Becerra or Steyer. Steyer has obviously has a lot of money. Becerra. Becerra has the history and the sort of status quo of the Democratic Party and whether whether that's going to resonate with with the California voters , because I think it's more I think it's more about the issues than it is about just the political party at this point , not just here , but nationally as well. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , I want to get into some of the key races here because of course , the big statewide race we're all watching is the governor's race.
S5: I think that one of the things these results will tell us , will tell us whether California voters , especially on the Democratic side , are looking for a more progressive candidate or looking for a more mainstream , moderate sort of candidate. Right. You certainly have a wide range of different Democrats who are running. So I'm going to be looking to see , you know , looking in the aggregate of whether voters are leaning more toward the more progressive candidates and whether those progressive messages are really working in California. Because , you know , in the November election , I think it's largely , you know , Democrats almost certainly going to win the governor's race. Given the demographics of the party makeup of the state. But it does tell you something about a lot of the congressional races throughout California. If you have a Democrats who are seeking more progressive candidates , you may see different dynamics in many of those congressional races with certain candidates doing better or doing worse.
S1: And , Rick , I know Brian touched on this earlier. California has a jungle primary rather than a partisan primary.
S6: Now , obviously we don't think that's going to happen. We think the Democrats will pull themselves together and we'll be probably one one of each. But it does.
S1: I mean , because while people might recognize a couple of of the names on the ballot. They may be overwhelmed to open their ballot and see 61 candidates listed there for for the governor's race.
S5: I mean , in the 2003 recall election , I think we had 300 , 400. Something like that , I think , which was the record. But yeah , typically you don't see that many people on the ballot , although I think most voters can recognize there's only a handful of major candidates and tend not to pay much attention to the minor candidates. So I don't think that's too much of an issue. I think it's more confusing that you have some candidates who actually dropped out of the race who are still on the ballot. So Eric Swalwell is still on the ballot , and there's a few others as well. And , you know , you know , even if half a percent of voters end up voting for those candidates who have dropped out , that it could still actually swing the election because of votes that are lost by the top candidates , who could end up influencing who wins.
S1: So interesting.
S6: One of the things I was going to say is interesting about this , that people forget is that the the percentage of voters who turn out to vote in these types of elections is also , you know , disturbing because really , this is you know , the state races are ones where with just a small amount of votes , you could actually carry the entire state and drive the policy for the state. And yet the turnout average , I think if it's like 30 to 40% , I think in the state of California. So you're thinking , think about that. 30% of eligible voters , 30 to 40% of vote and the others don't. So 6% or so don't vote. So we're seeing so if the people who it really matters to are the ones who are voting and let's say they're locked into two of one side or the other , then they could actually win the election , even though the majority of people may not may disagree with them.
S1: The one thing that's always sitting behind the scenes scenes , rather , that also seems to either tilt elections in one way or the other is money.
S5: Of course , Tom Steyer is largely self-funding his campaign. He's a billionaire , and he can spend basically unlimited amounts on some of the congressional races , for example , in the 48th district. You're seeing massive amounts of money being dumped into there , but this is just the primary. It's going to even be more in the general election. There are a large numbers of people that have enough disposable income , where there really isn't much of a limit to how much they can actually spend. So I think we're going to see another record breaking year in terms of the amount of money that we're being spent on , on congressional races as well as state races.
S6: And part of the and and part and you're absolutely right I that's definitely it's going to be a really I'd be interested to see that final number is going to look like one of the things that that the big egg in the house with. This is also the fact that on top of the amount of money , it's also the corporate , the corporate money too , not just the private money and and who own who has money. Right. And then you think about the demographics that that have control , just like they do with Guardian or National Congress but Congress as well. So , you know , that can drive the outcome of elections because they control the narrative. They control a lot of social media outlets , so the people who are listening are following , you know , people who have , you know , vested economic ties and economic interests , you know , to serve , to serve , you know , a particular demographic of people that's that , you know , this is where things get murky. But that's the state of , I think , politics in California and and in the country for , for a long time now. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. We also have a competitive race for California's 48th congressional district. It's a key race for Democrats who are really hoping to regain control of the House following redistricting efforts that came from prop 50.
S6: I mean , I think there still comes down to , you know , one what are you going to what are you going to do with the what the what the housing situation. What are you going to do with the , um to generate continually generate economic resource there ? You know , affordability , of course , it always comes back to taxation. You know , who's who's paying for what. And can can people still maintain their quality of life in that district ? With all that , with all the aspects of needs that are that are within that district , like housing , affordable housing , like those types of things. And I think that that is going to be much more important than necessarily the individual. It's going to be whether the individual supports the policies that are going to substantiate that district and see the district thrive. And I think that's what the driving point is.
S1: So like a lot of the issues that you just mentioned , they're the same issues. And just in many districts , they're the same issues across the state of California. And hearing all of these candidates talk about their platforms , the policies that they would support.
S5: No. I mean , there's really been a lack of imagination on the part of candidates , and that's why we see in the gubernatorial race that it's like a wide open field. And , you know , can it's really been able to break out from the pack because they are doing the same talking points. They've been doing both parties for years. And no , Candice , nobody's really come up with a way to really appeal to voters innovative way. Now , maybe they will come November. Right. You know , I mean , there's still obviously a lot of time before the general election , but yeah , I think candidates are really struggling to try to figure out how to actually connect with voters , especially given how cynical voters are. And even if you have a really good message , voters may not believe you. And that's really hard for candidates to to break through that.
S1: The other aspect of that , too , I think , is that , like we've we've heard these policies before. They've been done before. So at this point , we know what's effective and what's not.
S6: But there's also a you know , things change , you know. So I'm thinking about politics. Things change all the time. So what worked previously may not always be successful. You know , 5 or 10 years later. So always be aware of that. I think the candidates are really just. They want to maintain the status quo because they're afraid of. If they go off on a tangent. One the lack of faith in any of the stuff. Right. And people , the ones who vote have limited you know , half of them are conspiracy theorists. I'm worried about , you know , what they think they've heard but not really understand the numbers or the realities. But I also think that , you know , there is a room , there is room for innovation. But just like the issue with homelessness , for example. You know , I mean , it's a continual kick the can down the road kind of issue in California. I mean , how do you have the what ? Fourth or fifth largest economy in the world , but yet we have our homelessness. And I'm a native San Diegan and I can you know , I am shocked when I see and no disrespect to the homeless because , you know , I you know , they have their issues too , and they're human beings. But we have never. No one's ever. No one's addressing it. We just kind of keep , you know , like , oh , that'll just go away or we'll just put our fingers in our ears.
S1: So it doesn't seem to be the political will. No.
S6: No. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. I'll just add that there are a lot of new ideas out there. The candidates are really hesitant to sort of go out on a limb and promote new ideas , because when they do that , they get pilloried often by members of their own party , and that often it just doesn't resonate right. So I think a lot of candidates go back to the same talking points that tried and true talking points they've been doing , trying to just appeal to their base to make sure their base gets turns out and not really going out on a limb and trying new things. I mean , you see that sometimes. For example , Mendham in New York had proposed a whole bunch of new , different ideas. I mean , it worked for him in New York in a more competitive race , say , the 48th Congressional District. I think candidates are very hesitant to do that. And I think that's true on both sides of the aisle , actually. Mhm.
S1: Do you all think that there are some candidates that maybe would have had a better platform here , been elevated more , if not sort of pushed to the margins by their party for their different ideas.
S5: I don't think so. I don't think either party. I mean , I think certainly in the gubernatorial race , I think both parties took a relatively hands off approach. Now , obviously the Democratic Party just wanted fewer Democrats to run , so they're putting a lot of pressure on people to drop out. But I don't think there was a , um , an effort that we've seen , for example , in a national level where the party leaders really tried to control the process , which is one reason why you got , you know , however many , you know , ten Democrats running in the gubernatorial race initially. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. Okay.
S6: Well , no , I was going to say just quickly that I think like , even if , let's say , if the Sarah who's leading right now , if Becerra were to win , it doesn't mean Tom Steyer necessarily loses , because at the end of the day , Becerra is going to need those votes down the road. So then it it just becomes a bargaining chip , right ? So Steyer still gives them it still gives them some leverage to be able to say , okay , but Sarah , I'm going to give my my people to suggest they vote for you. But I'm not doing that without some concessions. Or I want you to implement some of my some of my ideas as well. And I think that's where the bargaining comes in. Indeed.
S1: Indeed. Well , I also want to talk briefly about California's 75th State Assembly seat. It includes areas like Poway , Santee , Fallbrook and rural East County. And we have two candidates on the ballot there , incumbent Republican Carl DeMaio and Democrat challenger Gerald Bochco.
S7:
S5: Isn't all that noticeable. Notable. What really is interesting is this this rift between DeMaio and the rest of the the mainstream Republican Party in San Diego County. So this has gotten very personal and very nasty. DeMaio is basically taking on the Republican establishment and trying to effectively take over the party apparatus. I mean , there's been tremendous pushback to that. We're seeing this playing out in the fifth supervisorial district that Jim Desmond is vacating in some other races as well.
S7: I think it's a really there's nothing.
S5: Wrong with intra party disputes. There's nothing wrong when , you know , people within the same party disagree over things , but it is really problematic when it comes this personal and this negative , because Republicans really struggle in San Diego to win seats. And having this type of sideshow where they're arguing among themselves really doesn't do themselves any favors. Um , so , yeah , I think that's and that's going to be an ongoing issue because it doesn't seem like either side there is going to concede or be able to , to , to to have be victorious. Hmm. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. Carl. And I've , I've known Carl for a while , and , you know , he's kind of rebranded himself and as being the sort of pariah in the Republican Party. And I think he , I think , you know , you know , and it could work conceptually. I mean , because he's dealing with Republicans , California Republicans who may who , you know , and some of them are , you know , have philosophically , uh , I'm sure he's had his sit downs with them to be able to say , hey , well , let's look at these issues and how can we stand out from the mix of the general , you know , generic Republican Party. And I think that that's what he's fighting on. Not whether or not. If he were to get elected , whether he would actually deviate as far as he is playing politically right now. That becomes an interesting question. When you look at his at his history , how you know of what he's typically voted on in his policies.
S1:
S6: And I think , you know , I mean , there are numerous , uh , you know , economic interest and , and , and political and social interest that resides strictly within the Board of Supervisors positions. And I think this is one of those times where , um , who sits who gets a seat at that table is going to be really important based on where we sit politically right now and the necessity of having strong leadership in the board , in that particular board of supervisor position. Now , whether we have whether any of those people are the heir apparent , um , that remains to be seen. I'm not sure. Does anybody stand out to you , Brian , that you can think of ? Yeah.
S5: I mean , so right now , the county Board of Supervisors has three Democrats and two Republicans. Republicans desperately need to hold on to the seat. And it does lean Republican. So it's very likely that the two Republican frontrunners , um , Franklin and Jones , both , you know , North County mayors , both relatively strong candidates. Um , it's likely that one of those is going to be able to win in November , but they need to win it because if they have , they're outnumbered 4 to 1. The county Board of Supervisors. They are completely shut out. Um , and so this is where they need to be really careful. And , you know , ordinarily this is a gimme seat. This is an easy seat for Republicans to win , but maybe not this year. Um , and it's depending on how the race goes , it's possible the Democrat could have an outside chance at that seat , and then Republicans would have to put resources into that seat and resources they don't really have. Um , Republicans in San Diego really struggled to to get the resources they need to be competitive because they've had such a long losing streak.
S1: So much , so much has changed. And of course , I know that we threw a lot of information at you. But as always , you can visit the Voter Hub at KPBS for information about all the candidates and races. I've been speaking with Brian Adams , a political science professor at San Diego State University. Thank you very much , Brian. Thank you. And also Rick Epps. He's a political science professor at Imperial Valley College. Thank you Rick.
S8: Thank you.
