S.J. voters hit the polls in national Super Tuesday

Three months earlier than usual, voters throughout San Joaquin County made their way to the polls to cast their ballot in California’s primary election.

California moved up its primary to gain more relevance in the presidential campaign. It was one of five states, along with South Dakota, New Mexico, West Virginia and New Jersey to hold its primary on Tuesday.

Traffic was slow about 8:40 a.m. Tuesday at the Calvary Assembly of God polling station on Kelley Drive in north Stockton. Only about 20 voters had come through to cast ballots, poll workers said. Plenty of snacks such as fruit, cookies and beverages were available as well.

A large number of voters use the vote-by-mail system. However, anyone casting a vote at a polling station was introduced to new technology and a different ballot.

Gone were the old paper rosters used to look up voter names, replaced with a Poll Pad, Apple iPad formatted to check-in voters in. Also gone were the old fill-in-the-small-red-bubble ballots, replaced with easier to read, fill-in-the-rectangle with primarily black in ballots.

The changes were part of a new system designed to make voting go more quickly and efficiently, said Melinda Dubroff, San Joaquin County registrar of voters.

“I am not as focused on speed as I am accuracy and security,” she said Tuesday night about 30 minutes before the polls were scheduled to close.

Voters, do not need to see that “under the hood stuff that doesn’t affect them,” she said. But they do need to be able to see and cast their ballot.

Activity at the polling stations picked up at various places throughout the day.

Turnout was good at Manlio Silva Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon in north Stockton, according to one poll worker, who reported traffic was brisk at some times and slow at other times. The administrator at the poll declined to comment and told others working not to comment, either.

In south San Joaquin County, at midafternoon, a steady stream of voters were coming into the polling place at Manteca Fire Station 2 on South Union Road.

Inspector Rich Silverman described the turnout as “a little busy. It’s busier than I expected.”

Some of the new procedures, such as the Poll Pad, confused some voters. Others showed up who had received vote-by-mail ballots but didn’t use them for a variety of reasons. They were provided with provisional ballots.

“We try to explain how that works, but a lot of people don’t understand,” Silverman said. “One woman was upset that this was a primary election. She didn’t understand what that meant.”