THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2024 Slow and steady action reported at local polling places

Local high school students volunteer on election day

“Slow but steady” sums up the action at county polling places on Tuesday.

Although the statewide primary election didn’t exactly bring swarms of eager local voters to the polls, the “primary election” tag didn’t totally dampen enthusiasm for casting a ballot, thanks primarily to three contested Inyo County Supervisor races.

By the end of the evening at the polling station in the Heritage Arts building at the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop, election officials estimated close to 1,100 residents had either cast a ballot in person or came by to drop off a completed mail-in ballot. Officials estimated that nearly 500 voters filled out ballots in person, while roughly 600 completed ballots were dropped off.

Countywide, a new feature on the Inyo County Elections’ webpage page listed all the in-person voters and where they voted. By 8 p.m. when the polls closed, about 800 county residents had cast a ballot at their polling places in Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine and Bishop. The county has about 10,600 registered voters.

However, thanks to voters’ enthusiastic embrace of mail-in voting the action or lack of action at polling places has not served as a very reliable indication of total turnout. The prevalence of mail-in ballots has also stretched out the vote counting process.

Volunteers

At the Tri-County Fairgrounds, the roughly 40 volunteer poll workers watched nervously as Election Day got off to a bit of a slow start. But officials said there was a steady procession of voters coming in around noon and through the rest of the day. At around 7 p.m., the last-minute folks showed up in force. The row of voting kiosks in the middle of the room had a solid number of voters toiling over their paper ballots as the voting day drew to a close.

The volunteers staffed seven tables representing seven Bishop precincts. The experienced poll workers who have been at the task for years were joined this year by a group of Bishop High School students. The students were at the check-in desk and quickly and efficiently got voters signed in on swiveling computer screens, similar to what folks see at local coffee shops.

All the volunteers and election office staff put in a full day, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., taking breaks for donuts, lunch and dinner, while keeping the voting operation flowing.

Turnout seem a bit low at the second Bishop polling place in the Paiute Professional Center on Tu Su Lane. That polling place is only for voters in Precinct 104. The seven volunteers said that the

early day voting action was a bit slower than in past years, but ballot drop-offs once again probably topped in-person voting.

In both locations, voters turned in completed mail-in ballots. Completed ballots could also be handed directly to a poll worker, which was new this year.

One voter at the Fairgrounds passed on the drop box option and handed over a ballot to a poll worker. The voter took the “hand it in” approach after learning that the ballots in the drop box would not be counted on Tuesday, since poll workers and County Clerk’s staff have to validate the signatures on the drop-off ballots before counting them.

Counting the ballots Information on the county Election’s Department web page outlined the counting procedure.

Mail-in and early voting ballots that have arrived in the clerk’s office prior to election day were counted on Tuesday, with results posted shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Ballots completed in person, or handed in to poll workers on Tuesday, also were tallied in Independence Tuesday evening.

Mail-in ballots delivered to by the Post Office to the clerk’s office and the ballots hitting any of the multiple drop boxes in county communities and at polling places will be counted starting today.

Again, signature verification takes some time. Results from that batch of ballots will be added to the initial tally on Thursday, March 7. Other mail-in ballots arriving from the Post Office (postmarked prior to election day) will be counted each day as they arrive, with updated vote counts posted daily. A final tally of mail-in ballots will come after March 12, the last day those ballots can arrive in the Clerk’s Office.

Ballots can be counted until March 25, and final election results must be certified by March 27.

Photo by Jon Klusmire After completing the Student Poll Worker Program through the Inyo County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Office, six Bishop High School students volunteered as poll workers at the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgrounds on Tuesday. From left are Yolopzin Rubio, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Valeria Hernandez, Ania Durham, Scout Flynn and Cadence Knott. On election day, student poll workers volunteered at all five county polling places. Schools in Bishop, Big Pine, Independence and Lone Pine participated in the Student Poll Worker Program.