Voter turnout expected to be high in El Dorado County

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - From 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., local voters will be casting their decisions for the future of South Lake Tahoe government, El Dorado County government, cannabis, vacation rentals and state and federal issues and candidates.

A historic number of voters are expected both nationally and locally. During the last California gubernatorial election in 2014 voter turnout was at a record low, but the opposite is expected in 2018.

As of Monday, November 5 at 10:00 a.m., 121,215 voters are registered in El Dorado County, with almost 95,000 mail-in ballots requested, a record number. Of those registered in the County, Democrats number at 34832, Republican 48797, No Party Given 29080 and miscellaneous make up the balance.

That number can change as voters can register on Election Day at the registrar's offices both in South Lake Tahoe and Placerville from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. In the June election, the first time the County tried this, 135 voted on a conditional ballot by registering the day of the election. Elections officials expect just as many, if not more, to register on November 6.

The election's department mailbox has been stuffed full at the post office this week, with 14 trays of mail coming in Monday (an estimated 5,600 mail-in ballots). Each day's mail over the weekend brought in historically high amounts, with 2,561 ballots counted Saturday and 371 on Sunday.

Actual records won't be known until after Tuesday but the total of 46,000 ballots received so far in El Dorado County is showing the signs of historic numbers for a gubernatorial election.

In the City of South Lake Tahoe, 10,983 people are registered voters, 4296 Democrat, 2110 Republican, 3647 No Party Given and the balance from other parties.

For the El Dorado County Supervisor Area 5 numbers, there are 20,918 registered voters with 7708 of those being Democratic, 4997 Republican, 6453 No Party Given and the balance being from other parties.

The first count of ballots for the County will be released shortly after the polls close at 8:00 p.m. They will be the results of mail-in ballots. The rest will be tabulated as the precincts come in.

South Tahoe Now will be watching the count and posting results as they come in. Ballots that are dropped off at polling places will take longer to process and can take several days. If at the polling place one can always go in and vote instead of leaving a ballot to be counted at a later time.

To find out where to vote Tuesday, no matter what state or county one lives in, visit https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/.

There may be a special election in the spring depending on what happens with cannabis in South Lake Tahoe and the Board of Equalization District 1 vote. If Senator Ted Gaines wins that seat, their state legislature seat will need to be filled.