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A little before 8 a.m., El Centro resident Carmen Brox entered the Farm Bureau building on Broadway, gave her name, received her ballot and walked to a booth to cast her vote for an election that in El Centro will decide three City Council seats and numerous school board trustees.
“I felt disoriented,” Brox said in Spanish. “I didn’t know who to vote for,” she said with a grin before walking out of the polling site without saying who she voted for.
Brox is one of the four people that within the span of an hour went to this precinct which opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, said voting inspector Alex Morales.
“It’s not that big of an election,” he said. A low physical turnout is expected in his precinct, Morales said.
Final preliminary results were released shortly before midnight Tuesday, with likely several hundred provisional and mail-in ballots left to be counted. But as of 11:40 p.m., 7,517 votes had been counted between precincts and early mail-ins, for a 22 percent turnout.
For the morning, though, 630 voters were registered at the Farm Bureau precinct, Morales said, and he estimates that about 55 percent of those voters are casting their ballot by mail. “I can’t blame them,” he said, adding he will probably do the same for the next election.
By 12:30 p.m. 11 more people casted their ballot. “I knew it was going to be a low turnout,” Morales said. “It’s a small election.”
Besides now having a handicapped booth, Morales, a poll worker for 20 years, didn’t see anything different in this election.
By 7 p.m. the turnout there was 43 people.
The El Centro City Hall polling site didn’t see a better turnout. By 1 p.m. 23 people went to vote, said voting inspector Mary McGee.
Seven hundred eighty-three are registered in this precinct, she said, and most are voting by mail.
“It’s unfortunate that it is one of those elections that affect us all (and) people don’t show more interest,” she said.
The same story could be seen throughout polling sites in the city.
In the First Baptist Church in El Centro, a polling site divided in two precincts, they had 23 voters on one voting table and 39 in the other, according to clerk Shirley Mobley and voting inspector Frank Fernandez.
“I guess people don’t consider it a very important ballot,” Mobley said.
At around 7:30 p.m. they reached 50 and 106 voters, respectively, in that polling site.
El Centro resident Juan Ulloa was one of those voters. “I vote every election. I think it’s an important part of being a citizen,” Ulloa said moments after voting.
Not voting is a “missed opportunity” as El Centro is struggling with economic issues, he said.
At the Brawley Public Library polling site, out of the 733 registered voters only 67 had casted their ballot.
“I felt disoriented,” Brox said in Spanish. “I didn’t know who to vote for,” she said with a grin before walking out of the polling site without saying who she voted for.
Brox is one of the four people that within the span of an hour went to this precinct which opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, said voting inspector Alex Morales.
“It’s not that big of an election,” he said. A low physical turnout is expected in his precinct, Morales said.
Final preliminary results were released shortly before midnight Tuesday, with likely several hundred provisional and mail-in ballots left to be counted. But as of 11:40 p.m., 7,517 votes had been counted between precincts and early mail-ins, for a 22 percent turnout.
For the morning, though, 630 voters were registered at the Farm Bureau precinct, Morales said, and he estimates that about 55 percent of those voters are casting their ballot by mail. “I can’t blame them,” he said, adding he will probably do the same for the next election.
By 12:30 p.m. 11 more people casted their ballot. “I knew it was going to be a low turnout,” Morales said. “It’s a small election.”
Besides now having a handicapped booth, Morales, a poll worker for 20 years, didn’t see anything different in this election.
By 7 p.m. the turnout there was 43 people.
The El Centro City Hall polling site didn’t see a better turnout. By 1 p.m. 23 people went to vote, said voting inspector Mary McGee.
Seven hundred eighty-three are registered in this precinct, she said, and most are voting by mail.
“It’s unfortunate that it is one of those elections that affect us all (and) people don’t show more interest,” she said.
The same story could be seen throughout polling sites in the city.
In the First Baptist Church in El Centro, a polling site divided in two precincts, they had 23 voters on one voting table and 39 in the other, according to clerk Shirley Mobley and voting inspector Frank Fernandez.
“I guess people don’t consider it a very important ballot,” Mobley said.
At around 7:30 p.m. they reached 50 and 106 voters, respectively, in that polling site.
El Centro resident Juan Ulloa was one of those voters. “I vote every election. I think it’s an important part of being a citizen,” Ulloa said moments after voting.
Not voting is a “missed opportunity” as El Centro is struggling with economic issues, he said.
At the Brawley Public Library polling site, out of the 733 registered voters only 67 had casted their ballot.
