Despite slow start, Sonoma County election turnout expected to reach 50%

Thousands of Sonoma County residents turned up at voting centers Tuesday to drop off their mail ballots for the state primary or cast votes in person on Election Day.

With more than two dozen local, state and national offices on the ballot, turnout of county voters was on track to match participation from the last mid-term primary in 2018, according to local election officials.

Almost 1,500 people had filled out a ballot at the polls as of Tuesday afternoon and piles of mail-in ballots that were dropped off at vote centers and drop boxes around the county still needed to be processed, Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Proto said.

Proto hoped turnout would reach 50%, higher than projected statewide turnout which she noted was expected to be low, no surprise for a mid-term primary. Sonoma County’s turnout in the 2018 primary was about 48%.

The local ballot included contested races for sheriff, two seats on the Board of Supervisors representing north and south county, county superintendent of schools and a pair of judicial posts. Races for district attorney, the county’s auditor-controller-treasurer-tax collector and county clerk-recorder-assessor were uncontested.

The primary for governor topped a list of 15 state and national offices up for election, with runoffs in November.

At the Petaluma Community Center on North McDowell Boulevard, poll inspector JJ Jay said a line of about five voters were waiting outside the center for polls to open at 7 a.m.

About 50 people had cast a live ballot by late morning and even more cars circled through the parking lot as voters tucked their ballots into the large blue drop box on the curb.

Jay said the center is typically the busiest location in Petaluma and though they didn’t see as high turnout as they did in 2020, there was a “good stream” of people. The center was also busy on Monday on the last day of early in-person voting but Tuesday’s showing “blew everything out of the water.”

The Petaluma Community Center was one of a handful of vote centers across the county that saw the highest Election Day turnout, Proto said. The Sebastopol Center for the Arts and Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building also were busy.

Petaluma resident James Cole cast his vote at the Petaluma Community Center on Tuesday and said he prefers to vote in person because it’s a “fun tradition.”

But while voting is his civic duty, Cole, 63, said he felt “lackadaisical” about the election in general.

Vince Fausone said he typically votes in person because it makes him “feel very patriotic.” He largely supported incumbents on the ballot that he felt were doing a good job in office but the Petaluma resident left many races blank, he said.

Every registered voter received a mail-in ballot, but just 15% of voters across the state had returned their ballot or cast a vote during early in-person voting as of Monday night, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In Sonoma County, about 22% of the county’s 304,022 registered voters had returned a ballot or cast an early vote as of Tuesday morning, Proto said.

Turnout during midterm primary elections typically range from 40% to 55% of voters, she said.

Low turnout could be a symptom of a lack of competitive races down the ballot.

Voters at the polls Tuesday largely struck an apathetic tone, with many saying they hit the polls because it’s their right but they weren’t particularly excited about any race or candidate because many of the races are uncontested or the incumbent is favored to win.

Others, like Mike Bell, a 71-year-old Sebastopol resident, said he was watching the sheriff and judicial races closely.

He wants to see more accountability in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, particularly in terms of how law enforcement officials handle mental health calls. The department’s culture needs to change so it’s more accommodating to people with mental illnesses, he said.

Bell, who dropped off his ballot at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, voted for former San Francisco police Sgt. Carl Tennenbaum because “he’s enough of an outsider to make a difference.” He expected the race to head to a runoff and hoped Tennenbaum moved forward to the November election, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.