Gonzalez said he’s concerned the county might run out of
ballots, but noted that a contingency plan is in place if that
happens.
HOLLISTER
With the Nov. 4 election less than two weeks away, San Benito County Clerk Joe Paul Gonzalez expects 70 percent of voters to turn out.
“The only thing we do know is that this is going to be one of the highest turnouts we’ve had in years,” Gonzalez told the Free Lance today.
While hot-button issues such as Proposition 8 may draw more voters to polling place, the presidential election “always is the big draw,” said Gonzalez. Prop. 8 is the state’s ballot measure asking voters if they want to ban same-sex marriages.
With the presidential election garnering most of the attention, though, Gonzalez said it’s hard to say how many people will be focused on local races and issues.
Gonzalez also talked about the increasing number of citizens who vote by mail, a choice for which many have opted because it’s more convenient, he said.
“Its a trend,” he said. “We are human and we look for things that are more convenient.”
He added that this election also is about voters educating themselves on the issues.
Gonzalez said that 51.3 percent of registered voters from the county are choosing the vote-by-mail option. Last year, the state changed the wording from absentee voting to vote-by-mail in an attempt to get away from the stigma it had carried that the method was just for citizens who couldn’t get to the polling places.
Gonzalez’s only major concern about this election is running out of ballots, he said.
“(We) hope we’ve ordered enough ballots,” he said.
But the secretary of state asked that each clerk write a contingency plan in the event they’re short ballots. Gonzalez said the county does have a plan in place.
He noted that he isn’t worried about security at polling places and already has more than enough volunteer poll workers. Just in case, he plans to have additional poll workers in case problems arise.
