Politics & Government

County Elections Office Chaotic but Upbeat

Registrar says it's not quite as nutty as it was in 2008 when Barack Obama defeated John McCain for the presidency.

Although the Marin County Elections Office is in "wonderful chaos" right now, according to the registrar, this election isn't quite keeping up with the frenzy of 2008.

Registrar Elaine Ginnold predicted a voter turnout of 84 percent for Tuesday's presidential election, which would rank just less than the 2008 election.

"It's very busy but not quite at the same level as then, subjectively at least," she said Monday evening. "But I don't think any of us here have been off the phone for more than 2 minutes today."

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Marin has 155,025 registered voters, Ginnold said. Fifty-four percent (84,374) are Democrats, 18 percent (28,458) are Republican and 23 percent (35,193) are "decline to state." (About 6,000 people are either Independent, Green, Libertarian, Peace & Freedom or miscellaneous).

 The total number of registered voters is down a few hundred from 2008, Ginnold said, but her office has received more than 61,000 mail-in ballots.

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"That's becoming a lot more popular," she said. "That's about 10,000 more than 2008 and we haven't finished counting."

The "wonderful chaos" of election season means Ginnold has about 15 extra workers, several of whom worked last weekend. Her office was open for a few hours Saturday and Sunday and about 1,000 people went in to drop off ballots, she said.

"We just hope tomorrow is smooth," she said.

Click here for a story on this subject from the Marin Independent Journal.


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