Heather Knight: With huge numbers of ballots already cast, S. F. is nearly certain to break its voter- turnout record.
Happy Nerve Racking Election Day!
Many San Franciscans will spend Tuesday doom-scrolling their social media accounts, watching the TV news through their fingers like a horror movie, and drowning their anxiety in booze, weed and Halloween candy. After all, many of them will have already finished the day’s most productive and pressing task: voting.
As of Monday morning, San Franciscans had already cast an astonishing 322,000 ballots, for a turnout of 62% — 24 hours before election day even began. John Arntz, director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, said there’s no question that San Franciscans will cast more ballots this goaround than in any previous election.
“It’ll be the largest number of people voting for sure,” he said.
That’s partly because the city’s population has swelled in recent years. But will San Francisco beat its alltime turnout record — the percentage of registered voters who cast their ballots? That’s less certain, but we have a decent chance at setting the record considering how furious city residents are at the miserable state of affairs and how determined they are to see them fixed.
The turnout record belongs to Nov. 7, 1944, when 86.82% of registered San Franciscans cast their votes. That was the election in which the country, still in the midst of World War II, gave President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt his fourth term in office. Every presidential election from 1956 through 1968 saw turnouts of at least 82% in San Francisco.
Then turnout dropped off precipitously until Nov. 4, 2008, when 81.25% of registered voters in San Francisco turned out to help send Barack Obama to the White House. Eight years later, 80.71% cast their ballots in the election that gave Donald Trump the presidency.
“We’ll exceed 81%,” said Arntz, who wouldn’t venture a guess as to how much higher the percentage might climb.
The huge level of participation in San Francisco is one muchneeded bit of good news. Clearly, many city residents have tied themselves in knots with worry as they await the results.
On Monday, I asked people on Twitter to say in one word how they were feeling on the eve of such a momentous election. The answer? Bad.
Hundreds of people responded with words including terrified, anxious, exhausted, nauseous, stressed, overwhelmed, panicked, paranoid, impatient, fretful, drained, discombobulated and drunk. A few responded with more uplifting words, including ready, hopeful, determined and excited.
The dread is certainly warranted considering the horrible year that is 2020 — and the baseless doubts Trump has cast on our voting system. But San Franciscans can take a little solace in the fact that our elections usually run smoothly, voting is encouraged and our votes are counted.
I filled in my ballot at home and dropped it at the voting center outside City Hall on Friday. On Monday, I checked its status at sfelections. org. Just click on “track my ballot” and plug in your address number, ZIP code and date of birth. It showed that, yes, my ballot was received Friday and removed from its envelope the same day. On Saturday, it was counted.
It’s reassuring to have such a calm, steady, nofrills person as Arntz leading the elections process in the city, a job he’s held for 19 years. He said he’s pretty much ignored all the chatter on social media and in the news about Trump’s repeated falsehoods that the election might be stolen and voters might commit fraud. Instead, Arntz focused on making the San Francisco election as smooth as possible.
“We don’t chase the tail. We just keep moving forward and doing our job,” he said.
Pulling off this election in the midst of a global pandemic and political unrest is monumental — and it’s been going continuously since March when Arntz certified the primary election.
The major undertaking includes the socially distanced outdoor voting center outside Bill Graham Civic Auditorium that’s been operating since Oct. 5. Plus official ballot dropoff stations in every supervisorial district — including the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center — that have been running since Saturday.
Standard polling places — there will be 588 this year — will be open Tuesday for walkup, inperson voting. Arranging those was a challenge because the sites had to be big enough to space the voting booths 6 feet apart. They’re also equipped with hand sanitizer, gloves and masks. Firsttime hosts include the Museum of Ice Cream, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Balboa Theater and SF Eagle, a South of Market leather bar. I mean, that sentence alone should make you feel a little bit better, right?
California allows people to register to vote on election day and cast their ballots, which is one reason why Arntz said offering as many options as possible for voting on the big day was important.
“Polling places still have a very strong pull in San Francisco,” he said.
“Those stickers are very important!”
This fall’s musthave accessory, the “I Voted” sticker, also came with vote-by-mail ballots.
Arntz wouldn’t predict how long it will take to count all the votes. He has 30 days to certify the election and always leaves it up to us pesky journalists to call the races before he’s finished.
Once it’s all done, Arntz said he’ll probably recuperate at home by doing a whole lot of nothing.
“Just try to melt in front of the TV set, really,” he said with a laugh.
He also said he thinks the stress over the country’s voting system will quiet down, too.
“Once the election goes through its cycle and votes are reported and the election is certified, people are usually OK with everything,” he said. “People realize there wasn’t that much to worry about to begin with.”
Let’s hope he’s right. In the meantime, vote, rest and breathe. It will be over soon.