Ballots Quickly Rolling Into Local Elections Office
Sonora, CA — Vote by mail ballots went out last week and already nearly 10-percent have been filled out and returned to the Tuolumne County Election’s Office.
“The citizens and voters in Tuolumne County are definitely engaged,” says Debi Bautista, Clerk and Auditor-Controller.
She estimates that over 3,000 ballots have now been received. 1,900 of those were collected from the eight drop boxes around the county, others have arrived by mail, and some people have chosen to physically stop by the election’s office to vote in person.
Bautista says the early interest is definitely much higher than recent years, and she is pleased to see the initial turnout.
There has also been a notable uptick in the number of people registering to vote since the March primary election. Six months ago there were 32,562 registered voters in the county, and the number is now up by nearly 2,000, to 34,507. Bautista says the number could still increase, and she notes that Presidential election years often have the most interest. The Secretary of State’s Office reports that Tuolumne County has 42,340 people eligible to register to vote, so there are about 8,000 people who could technically still do so.
Californians can also track their ballot to ensure it is counted. This past March, 404 Tuolumne County residents signed up for the free service, and as of today, over 2,900 people have done so. Click here to find more information.
The State of California reports that 1.5-million ballots had been collected, statewide, compared to 150,000, at this point during the last General Election.
For information about voting sites, click here.
Besides the Presidential race, there are competitive board supervisors, special districts, school boards and congressional races.
