Voters at the Salvation Army polling place in the Eastern Goleta Valley were greeted by poll workers, from left: Joanne Fultz, JoAnne Ryan, Carolyn Geiger, and Dr. Jennifer Hone. It was Hone's first time while the others have volunteered for decades of elections.
Voters at the Salvation Army polling place in the Eastern Goleta Valley were greeted by poll workers, from left: Joanne Fultz, JoAnne Ryan, Carolyn Geiger, and Dr. Jennifer Hone. It was Hone's first time while the others have volunteered for decades of elections. Credit: Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo

The Santa Barbara County Elections Office reported 21% voter turnout in Tuesday’s election as of 2 p.m., which was when staff were processing ballots from the latest drop box retrieval.

Ballots are processed as soon as they are received, but they’re not counted until after the polls close at 8 p.m., explained Michael Daly, the county’s chief registrar of voters.

“Broadly, in primaries we are hard-pressed to get to 50% or higher turnout, and in generals it would be hard to see lower than 70%,” Daly said.

“We’re always hoping for 100%. We prepare for 100%, we want 100%, we do all this work hoping people will exercise their right and give us the work that we’re ready to do,” Daly said.

The first count of results will be posted on the County Elections Office website by 8:30 p.m., and updates will be posted every half hour or so, he said.

Usually there’s a “pretty big bump” in turnout between dinnertime and the close of polls on Election Day, he said.

“So we hope that those last minute voters will not forget,” he said.

Chief Registrar of Voters Michael Daly supervises Tuesday's primary election from the County Elections Office.
Chief Registrar of Voters Michael Daly supervises Tuesday’s primary election from the County Elections Office. Credit: Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo

For recent elections, the county sees less than 10% turnout at the polls, with most people voting by mail (which includes dropping the completed ballots in their envelopes at a drop box or a polling place).

It is a lot of work putting polling places together for what is mostly a vote-by-mail process, he said.

Daly had a busy day overseeing Tuesday’s election, including ballot processing at the Elections Office and polling places set up all over the county.

There’s a field dispatch center in the Elections Office to answer questions and send resources to poll workers and polling place field supervisors. Then there’s the call center to answer voter questions.

And the first floor of the Elections Office is where all the processing happens: sorting, verifying, extracting ballots from envelopes, and flattening and tabulating tens of thousands of ballots.

“The system has a lot of checks and balances,” Daly said.

Staff were busily sorting ballots retrieved from ballot boxes mid-afternoon Tuesday, and had many hours of work ahead of them.

Signs guide voters inside the Salvation Army polling place at 4849 Hollister Ave. Tuesday.
Signs guide voters inside the Salvation Army polling place at 4849 Hollister Ave. Tuesday. Credit: Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo

At the Polls

Lael Wageneck, a Public Works employee volunteering as a field supervisor for the day, made his first rounds early Tuesday morning. He made sure his assigned polling places had everything they needed and were ready to open.

He’s been a field supervisor for the past 12 years, and was assigned to the Eastern Goleta Valley for Tuesday’s election.

His big binder included everything from checklists to photos of where to put “Vote” signs outside each polling place.

“Even if you do it a lot, you still only do it twice a year every four years,” Wageneck said. “Some small things change.”

He planned to make the rounds again Tuesday evening to make sure each polling place was clear on closing procedures and how to deliver ballots to the Elections Office.

Lael Wageneck's field supervisor binder includes checklists for getting polling places ready for Election Day and how to process provisional ballots.
Lael Wageneck’s field supervisor binder includes checklists for getting polling places ready for Election Day and how to process provisional ballots. Credit: GIana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo

At the Salvation Army polling place at 4849 Hollister Ave., it was a slow start to Election Day. The volunteer poll workers saw about 80 people by lunchtime, and most of them were dropping off their vote-by-mail ballots in person.

Poll workers there ranged in experience from JoAnne Ryan, who has been doing this for 52 years, to a few people who were doing it for the first time.

“I think everybody should be a poll worker at least once,” said Joanne Fultz, who has been a poll worker for about 20 years.

Dr. Jennifer Hone signed up for the first time after seeing the county’s call for volunteers. It’s important to be part of the process, “especially at a time democracy is under threat,” she said.

Poll workers Kavya Suresh and Evelyn Van Bogelen, who are also seniors at nearby San Marcos High School, and Bonnie Pesek staffed the Salvation Army polling place Tuesday.
Poll workers Kavya Suresh and Evelyn Van Bogelen, who are also seniors at nearby San Marcos High School, and Bonnie Pesek staffed the Salvation Army polling place Tuesday. Credit: Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo

San Marcos High School seniors Evelyn Van Bogelen and Kavya Suresh shared what it was like to be poll workers and vote for the first time in this election.

“I wanted to be on the other side of it, too,” Suresh said.

She said she learned how much planning, integrity and security goes into an election.

Seeing all the work that goes into polling places has convinced her to be an in-person voter from now on, she said.

Bogelen heard about being a poll worker in her government class, and said she’s learned a lot about elections that she never learned in school.

Noozhawk executive editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com.