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How To Put On An Election In 2018, LA County-Style
"I Voted" stickers at the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office in Norwalk on Nov. 5, 2018. (Caleigh Wells/LAist)
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In a county as big as L.A., putting on Election Day can be quite a show.
And that's why it starts days before the first voters show up to cast their ballots.
Today the LA County Registrar-Recorder office is teeming with early voters casting ballots. But over the weekend inspectors from each of the county’s 4,000 voting places came through (many in their personal cars) to pick up supplies for their polling locations. @KPCC @LAist pic.twitter.com/NS3OhhqbYi
— Caleigh Wells (@cgrey307) November 5, 2018
All the materials at the polling places (the ballot readers, the audio booths for visually impaired voters and the voting booths) are passed out to the inspectors at scheduled times the weekend before Election Day, said Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the L.A. County Registrar's Office.
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"For the majority of them they're using their own personal automobiles, having it with them overnight and setting it up on Election Day," he said.
With more than 4,000 polling places, that means a lot of booths throughout the county.
At the end of the night, the ballots and materials are all brought back to headquarters in Norwalk.
Voters wait in line to cast their ballots early at the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office in Norwalk on Nov. 5, 2018. (Caleigh Wells/LAist)
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SO, HOW'S IT GOING SO FAR?
On Monday, the line to vote early was out the door at the Registrar-Recorder's office and around the side of the building, adding to the more than 14,000 voters that turned up over the weekend.
Sanchez called that a good sign, but he said it won't change standard Election Day preparations.
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The LAC Registrar-Recorder’s office says the 14,000 early votes cast this weekend is very high. But it expects hundreds of thousands more tomorrow. Despite early turnout, supplies and polling locations will stay the same, since there’s rarely lines on Election Day. @KPCC @LAist pic.twitter.com/IAjwoGjhEQ
— Caleigh Wells (@cgrey307) November 5, 2018
Another sign of high interest? Election officials report receiving 640,000 vote-by-mail ballots by midday Monday and believe that number could top 700,000 by day's end. In the last midterm, the total number of ballots received 577,023.
The polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and don't close until 8 p.m. at all polling locations in L.A. County. If you're voting by mail, make sure the ballot is postmarked by Tuesday. Eligible voters who missed the deadline to register can still cast conditional ballots and register on Election Day at the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office in Norwalk.
Data reporter Aaron Mendelson contributed to this report.
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