It’s 'just important’: Residents in Sonoma, Napa counties turn out to vote on Election Day

After a slow run up to the primary election, Sonoma County voters appeared to head to the polls in greater numbers on Super Tuesday, with voting centers and officials reporting a steady parade of people dropping off ballots or casting them in person.

In terms of overall turnout, though, the picture was far from clear. Officials in Napa County, for example, said early indications pointed toward potentially record low voter participation.

Statewide, out of more than 22 million mail ballots issued to registered voters in early February, only about 16% were returned by mid-Tuesday, the New York Times reported.

No projections were being made by Tuesday by officials in Sonoma County, where the eye test, at least, suggested Election Day had pulled more voters to the polls.

“We had one in here right at the beginning of the day, and it’s been nonstop — not packed but never empty — since,” said JJ Jay, a poll supervisor at the Petaluma Community Center.

By 11 a.m., Jay said, 70 to 80 people had voted in-person and another 80 had dropped off ballots, despite a steady drizzle. Outside the center, a line of cars six deep waited to pull up to the drop boxes set up opposite the entrance.

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As voting centers opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, ballots for a quarter of Sonoma County’s 302,700 registered voters had been processed, election officials said, slightly low for a presidential primary in comparison to 2020 and 2016 when 30% and 37% the ballots, respectively, were processed by Election Day.

By midafternoon, however, 2,600 people had voted in person, according to Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Proto, and the county was working to count mail ballots as quickly as possible.

“We are definitely seeing a steady stream of voters going to our in-person voting locations as well dropping off vote-by-mail ballots,” Proto said.

“We were expecting a lot of people today, and we are seeing that.”

She declined to offer any estimate on final turnout, saying it won’t be known for “at least a few days.”

A little more than 14,000 ballots — or just over 17% of the county’s 83,555 registered voters — had been returned and processed by Tuesday morning in Napa County. That compared to almost 28% around the same time in 2020.

County elections services manager Xioneida Ruiz said that early lag appeared to be in step with a statewide trend. By 3:30 p.m., however, returns were only 5% off the 2020 primary.

That first batch of 14,336 ballots represents 40% to 45% of the county’s projected turnout, Napa County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur said in a statement issued two hours before polls closed.

That, Tuteur said, “indicates that overall turnout could be at or near record lows.”

The next report from his office will be Friday afternoon, Tuteur said.

In downtown Napa, volunteers stood in the damp gloom of a service road running between the county offices and a parking structure, collecting drive-through ballot drop-offs. The traffic came and went in waves.

Upstairs, inside the Napa County Election Division, every place at the counter was occupied. One resident was voting, another had questions about the path her ballot would take after it slid into the box. Another had a problem: she had filled in the wrong circle in one race.

Workers — the full-time staff were wearing maroon shirts marking this March 2024 primary — had answers for everyone.

California is one of 15 states and one territory holding elections in which millions of Americans will vote. Dubbed Super Tuesday, it is when the largest number of states hold presidential primaries or caucuses. Voters had until the centers close at 8 p.m. to submit their votes in-person or drop off their ballots to vote in a number of local, state and federal races. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by March 5 and received by March 12 to be counted.

At stake are majorities for the Board of Supervisors in Napa and Sonoma counties, where a twice-proposed sales tax to bolster fire services was getting its second time before voters in four years.

“It is a presidential primary election, but there are a lot of other things on the ballot that are really important,” Proto said. “We hope people turn out.”

Santa Rosa’s Finley Community Center was busy just after 9 a.m. with a steady procession of voters dropping off ballots or voting in-person. Poll workers there said turnout was better than anticipated Tuesday morning, especially in comparison to the slower early voting days leading up to the main event.

“It’s nice to see people haven’t forgotten the date,” field inspector Graham Rutherford said.

It was slower at Sonoma State University’s voting center in Rohnert Park, where poll supervisor Ernest Salonga said about 20 people had voted by noon, roughly the same number as had voted in the previous three days of early voting which started Saturday.

About half the voters there so far were students, including a handful of first-timers, he said at midday. Based on past elections, “we’re expecting that between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. will be the busiest,” Salonga added.

A general civic duty rather than a particular issue on the primary ballot motivated a number of voters casting their ballots. Some said they wanted to set a good example for their kids and younger generations who might feel disillusioned.

“I’m a patriotic American,” Santa Rosa resident Ted Draper said after voting at the Finley Center. “When you have the right to vote you take it. We need that right now.”

“It’s my obligation to know what’s going on in my community, and it’s my obligation to let my one vote count,” said Aline Donohoe, of Petaluma.

While there are many consequential issues on the table, she said “the president of the United States seems pretty important to me.”

Donohoe, a Republican, voted for long-shot Nikki Haley against former President Donald Trump.

“I’ve been alive long enough to see sometimes there’s a surprise,” she said.

While voter turnout in primary elections is historically lower than in general elections, for Annabelle Anderson, Tuesday was an opportunity not to be missed.

“I think the primary is one of the most important,” said Anderson, 23, after dropping off her ballot at the Healdsburg Community Center vote center. “I feel like I have more of a voice in who makes it to the final election.”

Anderson, a Peace and Freedom Party member, said her top concern was supporting “someone who is adamantly pro cease-fire” in the Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza — and cast her vote for Peace and Freedom presidential candidate Claudia de la Cruz.

The Healdsburg vote center opened Feb. 24 and field inspector Edna Hargrove said as many people — about 40 — had come in Tuesday to fill out their ballot as had in the previous 10 days.

“I was ready for a slow day like the rest of the days, but it's been pleasantly busy,” Hargrove said.

Thomas Colbert has voted elections stretching back into the mid-20th century.

“I go to every election that is held and have since I was a boy,” said the 85-year-old Colbert, a Healdsburg resident.

A Republican, Colbert said he voted for neither former President Donald Trump nor President Joe Biden, but declined to say who he chose.

He cast a no vote against Proposition 1, which would authorize a $6.4 billion state bond for homeless housing and refocus some mental health and substance abuse treatment services and spending toward housing and supportive services.

On the local front, said Colbert, despite concerns over how it would be managed, he voted yes on Measure H, the countywide half-cent sales tax to support fire services.

After dropping off her ballot at the office, Napa resident Suzanne Reilly said she always votes in person.

“It’s just important to me,” she said, adding that it gives her extra confidence that her votes will be counted. Reilly said she finds it odd that the simple act of casting a ballot, and the question of who should be able to do so, and where and when, has become part of the political divide.

“It’s extremely strange,” she said. “It’s very important for us all, I believe. You have to have an opinion. You need to look at what’s out there, and try to understand. And not just fluff it off.”

Press Democrat Staff Writer Phil Barber contributed to this story.