Solid Voter Turnout Is Expected

Los Angeles County voters will cast their ballots today at 4,926 polling places for party nominees for president, the U.S. Senate and House, the Legislature, district attorney and a variety of hotly debated state propositions.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Elections officials are counting on a solid turnout among the county’s 3.8 million registered voters. Nearly half of a record-high 419,487 absentee ballots had been returned through Sunday.

“I’m hoping that this is an indication that voters will reverse the trend in declining voter turnout experienced in past elections,” said County Registrar Connie McCormack.

Slightly more than 37% of the county’s registered voters cast ballots in the 1996 presidential primary, down from nearly half in the 1992 primary.

Secretary of State Bill Jones is expecting a turnout of about 52% statewide, which would bethe highest percentage for a presidential primary in 16 years. McCormack’s office does not predict county turnout.

Also on the county ballot will be judicial races and some local bond measures and propositions.

About 3,000 would-be absentee voters reported not getting their ballots in the mail, said Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the registrar’s office. She said Monday the department was working with the U.S. Postal Service to determine what happened.

Anyone still holding absentee ballots, Ventura said, should drop them off at any polling place in the county before 8 p.m.

To find out polling locations, call (800) 481-8683. Assistance is available in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Tagalog, Korean and Vietnamese.

Election results will be available with updates every half-hour tonight on the Internet at https://www.lavote.net as well as from a link on the registrar’s Web site, https://regrec.co.la.ca.us.

The results also are available by phone at (562) 466-1323. Statewide results are at https://www.ss.ca.gov.