Isla Vista residents who voted in person on Tuesday reported long lines, but the County Elections Office pushed back on claims that the polling places ran out of ballots or had equipment issues.

There were four polling places in that community Tuesday, but the Isla Vista Community Center location was particularly hit with a large wave of voters.

Michael Daly, chief deputy assessor and registrar of voters, said some UCSB students were going to vote at the community center rather than their designated polling place, which required a significant amount of provisional ballots.

“A lot of the students, for some reason, turned out in droves and at the wrong polling places,” Daly said. “We just did everything we could to get them through the process. We never ran out of ballots — that’s false. Everybody got to vote that went to vote.”

A community center poll worker told Noozhawk on Tuesday night that they temporarily ran out of ballots earlier that day but replenished them.

Spencer Brandt, who serves on the Isla Vista Community Services District Board of Directors, told Noozhawk that multiple polling locations were out of English paper ballots for three hours on Tuesday, leading to voters having to use Spanish ballots or use the electronic ballot marking machines at polling places.  

Brandt said they began calling the Registrar of Voters office at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. when they heard reports of long lines and equipment issues, but were unable to reach anyone. 

“All of the issues faced, when added together, create barriers to the right to vote,” Brandt said. “I am exasperated and frustrated for our community and our democracy.”

Shortly after noon Tuesday, Sean Welch, counsel for the Yes on P for Santa Barbara City College campaign, sent a formal request to the Registrar of Voters asking for extended poll hours to ensure residents could vote. 

“It has come to our attention that there may be irregularities at voting locations in Isla Vista that may threaten the ability of voters to participate in the general election,” Welch wrote. “For instance, we have heard that several voting locations have run out of ballots, and that poll workers are telling voters that it may take two hours or longer to obtain more ballots.”

Welch also wrote that they heard reports of voting locations not having enough provisional ballots, and that student voters were interrogated about their California residency. 

Brandt said they purchased large amounts of food and water to encourage residents to stay in line. 

Around 3 p.m. Tuesday, more ballots were delivered to the community center and Saint Michael’s Church polling places. Subsequent runs were made throughout the later afternoon and early evening to ensure that there were enough ballots, according to Daly. 

Daly told Noozhawk that polling places never ran out of ballots and they replenished ballots multiple times. He also said that no technical difficulties with the electronic voting machines were reported. 

“Any suggestion that we had a shortage or ran out is not accurate,” Daly said.  

Daly said the long lines and residents going to the wrong polling place are consistent with what they usually see in Isla Vista during presidential elections. 

Election Turnout

Santa Barbara County expected high voter turnout for Tuesday’s election, but no official percentage was reported since there were still more ballots to process. Daly said there will be an unprocessed ballot report by Thursday afternoon.

The semi-official election night results, which include vote-by-mail ballots and some polling place ballots, showed 120,585 ballots cast countywide — a 49.2% turnout.

Those results will be updated as more ballots are counted in the upcoming days and weeks.

The county will certify election results on Dec. 3.