Merced County expects decent turnout in primary election

MERCED COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Voters in Merced made sure to get their ballots in Tuesday. The Merced County Registrar of Voters said only about 10% of voters in Merced County vote in person, the rest choose vote by mail.

Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of people either dropping off their ballots or voting in person.

"I've always voted, yeah, my whole life because I've always paid taxes, and I want to know where my money's going," said Chris Currier, Merced Resident

They said from receiving their ballots to dropping them off, the process has gone smoothly.

"Pretty easy for me," said Merced resident Doug Roper.

"I just walked in. This was the first time I voted for my mom, so I went into the Registrar's Office to make sure nobody thought I was putting in more than one ballot. I handed it to them, and they said, 'No problem.' So that was it!"

The Registrar's Office paid particular attention to Planada, where a shutdown post office has left residents traveling to Merced to pick up their mail since devastating floods in January of last year.

"We have undertaken extra outreach efforts to get out into the community and let them know that if they haven't received their ballot in the mail, they can go to their post office box in Merced, or they can come into the office or use the vote center in Planada," said Mel Levey, Merced County Registrar of Voters.

Levey, said between their 14 voting centers, the County Administration Building, and mail-in ballots they've seen significant turnout for a primary election.

Even with the option to vote by mail, Levey said many in the county still choose to vote in person for a variety of reasons.

"We have so many people who have Election Day traditions in this county," said Levey. "So whether it's new college students here at UC Merced registering and voting for the first time or multi-generational families going into a vote center to vote in person, we see it kind of all across the spectrum."

Major races on the ballot include a rematch in the U.S. Representative District 13 race between incumbent Republican John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray, three of five Merced County Board of Supervisor seats, and a superior court judge.

Polls remain open until 8 pm and then election officials will begin their count with the first unofficial results expected to be released by 8:15 and then updates within every two hours until midnight.

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