U.S. Turnout Moderate to Heavy; Calif. Forecast 75% : 23.9% Vote in County by 11 A.M.

Americans, drenched in sun as well as rain across the country, turned out in moderate to heavy numbers today to cast their ballots for the next President of the United States and state and local officials and a variety of voter initiatives.

In California, state officials predicted a 75.2% turnout, the same as in 1984.

As of 11 a.m. 23.9% of all registered voters in Los Angeles County had gone to the polls, according to the county registrar-recorder’s office. That is exactly the same turnout rate as the 1984 presidential election in L.A. County.

The secretary of state’s office said that statewide 18.4% of the 14 million of registered voters had turned out as of 10 a.m. That is the same rate of turnout as the 1984 presidential election statewide.

Both Republicans and Democrats were out in force in Southern California trying to turn out likely voters and occasional voters.

Phone bank work to turn out the vote in Orange County was strong. In Los Angeles County a check with several precincts in South-Central Los Angeles and in the Norwalk area indicated that voting by targeted Democrats was slow as of 11 a.m..

But officials for Campaign ‘88, which was designed to turn out targeted voters for the Dukakis campaign, said they expect many of their voters to vote by 6 p.m.

Rains Sweep N.Y. State

Officials arriving to open their polling places across the country in some cases found lines of voters waiting for them, including an estimated 200 people at a precinct in Bloomington, Minn., a state that traditionally has one of the highest Election Day turnouts.

Heavy rains swept across parts of New York state, where 8.6 million people are registered to vote and officials estimated that up to 6.8 million would cast ballots.

“Voting has been on the heavy side,” said Steven LaFever of the New York state Board of Elections. He said local election officials have reported “long, long lines” in some polling stations.

Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis was trailing Republican nominee George Bush by 5 to 10 points in national opinion polls but was expected to surge to an electoral victory in his home state of Massachusetts.

Election Commissioner Benjamin Thompson said in Boston that the turnout was very heavy.

“It is unusually high, even for a presidential election” with a favorite son at the top of the Democratic ticket, Thompson said. “The first indications are the turnout will be overwhelming.”

Heavy Indiana Turnout

Texans lined up early for the opportunity to vote for Bush at the head of the GOP ticket or for Democrat Lloyd Bentsen running for vice president with Dukakis. Bentsen also is on the ballot for reelection to the Senate.

In Indiana, the home state of GOP vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle, officials reported heavy voter turnout, with some voters in the Indianapolis area waiting about an hour to cast their votes.

In neighboring Ohio, a key, 23-electoral-vote battleground visited by both Bush and Dukakis on Monday, moderate to heavy turnout was reported.

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the Wisconsin Elections Board, said heavy voter turnout was reported early in Madison, Green Bay and Racine.

“I voted at 7:20 a.m. and I was 110th,” Kennedy said.

Alabama voters were turning out early in strong numbers, officials said. “It’s heavy; we’ve had lines since we opened up,” reported Joyce Cowley, an election official in Huntsville.

There were indications of heavy voting in metropolitan areas of Tennessee, with an official saying about 150 people were waiting in line to vote when one precinct opened in Nashville.