LOCAL : Orange County Expects 50% Turnout in Today’s Primary

More than 8% of Orange County’s voters had trekked to the polls late this morning as the primary election got under way today without apparent hitch.

“So far, everything has been going very smoothly,” said Rosalyn A. Lever, assistant registrar of voters for Orange County.

The turnout of 8.6% by 11 a.m. was nearly identical to that for the same period in the 1986 gubernatorial primary, but well below the 12% turnout for the last presidential primary in June, 1988, Lever said.

By the time the county’s 2,112 polling places close at 8 p.m. tonight, more than 500,000 local voters--or about 50% of those registered--are expected to cast ballots, Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney has projected.

Besides the fiercely fought Democratic primary election for governor and other statewide offices and initiatives, several hotly contested Orange County races and a countywide jail initiative were expected to draw voters.

Measure A, the countywide Centralized Jail Initiative, would require all future jails to be built in Santa Ana. Other countywide contests include the district attorney’s race between the incumbent and three Orange County prosecutors and a three-way race for county schools superintendent.

Elsewhere, there is a rancorous battle for the mayor’s seat in Irvine, three hotly contested assembly races, and Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder is facing her toughest reelection fight in her quest for a fourth four-year term. Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Don R. Roth have faced only token opposition.

This morning, it was the gasoline tax hike measure that moved Brenda Paxton, an 18-year-old business administration major at Golden West College, to deliver her absentee ballot in person to the registrar’s Santa Ana headquarters.

“I realize it will raise our taxes from 9 to 18 cents (per gallon of gasoline),” the Santa Ana woman said. “But that’s OK, because we have to do something about worsening traffic.”