Steady turnout at polls
Volunteers seeing more young voters
Voters took the polls by storm Tuesday around Porterville to make sure their voices were heard and their votes were counted.
With six different polling stations located around town, those who went out and voted had plenty of choices as to where they cast their ballot.
The Veterans Memorial building has been a common voting place for many voters, and this year proved to be no different.
“It’s been fairly consistent,” said a poll worker who wished to remain anonymous. “Nothing too crazy. We’ll get busier after 5 o’clock.”
Because the polls are open until 8 p.m., many of the polling stations anticipated a large influx of people coming to vote after the end of the work day.
The First United Methodist Church was pleased to see a constant flow of voters.
“It’s been steady,” said Bill Yarbough, a poll worker of seven years. “It’ll fill up and get empty and then fill up again.”
Yarbough explained that this election was not quite as busy as one previous election, where his polling station ran out of ballots and voters had to vote electronically.
In contrast, the polling station at the First Baptist Church stayed consistent throughout the day, and had registered so many new voters that they ran out of registration cards.
Angie Rodriguez-angeles, a poll worker with many years of experience under her belt, was proud to see the large number of people who came to vote at the church.
“I love it,” said Rodriguez-angeles. “Not even for the Presidential election was it like this. It has been great.”
Rodriguez-angeles noted that her staff couldn’t take their breaks because of the steady stream of people coming through the doors. Rodriguez explained that a lot of voters came out to vote provisionally and to turn in their mail-in ballots. She also noted a rise in younger voters at the polls.
“We’ve had a lot of young people,” Rodriguez-angeles said. “I don’t know what it is. Some of the propositions are for the schools, so I don’t know if that’s what it is, but we’ve had a lot of younger voters. It makes me feel good.”