Election traffic is heavy

A stream of ballots flowed steadily on Monday into the Registrar of Voters office, a scene of controlled frantic activity on the day before the long election season draws to a close.

Motorists made use of the drive-up window to drop off their ballots.

Ann Abbruzzese, of Santa Rosa, used the window to drop her son's ballot off; he mailed it express from San Diego to her, she said, noting that she herself voted three weeks ago by mail.

In the hall outside the regisrar's office, volunteers staffed a table set up to help voters with questions and absentee or mail-in ballots to deliver.

“I just don't want to in those lines tomorrow," said Catherine Carrol, 66, of Santa Rosa, about her decision to vote early.

Carroll said she has become a "political news junkie" this year, and was watching more of the same Monday morning when she decided to tear herself away and vote.

A phone bank operated steadily with eight volunteers taking call after call from people with questions about where to vote to how late the polls close.

Debra Russotti, the election services supervisor, said that as of Sunday evening, about 120,000 absentee and mail-in ballots – out of roughly 170,000 that had been mailed to voters – had been returned.

Monday, 15 registrar staff members and about 30 volunteers processed box after box of the sealed ballots, sending them through a machine that separates the ballots from envelopes, checking for damaged ballots, making sure they are aligned correctly to be properly tabulated.

Polls remain open until 8 p.m. Tuesday, and mail-in ballots can be dropped of at any polling place, Russotti said.

It's exciting because so many people are excited about it," she said of the election.  "It's huge."

Drop off locations around the county, which were to be shuttered today, were being opened, she said, because of an inaccurate report over the weekend that they were open Monday.

It is too late to put absentee ballots in the mail.

In Mendocino County, election officials have received and tabulated 21,839 absentee ballots and have several trays with another estimated 1,000 ballots waiting to be checked, Clerk-Recorder Sue Ranochak said Monday morning.

She said 37,968 absentee ballots were issued.

She said turnout in Mendocino County could reach 80 percent.

"This is a historic election," she said.