Voter Turnout Figures to Be High

At least one Orange County election result is guaranteed to change, officials said: the turnout.

As of Wednesday, tallies showed that 52% of the county’s 1.5 million registered voters cast ballots in the county during a day marked by lines at some polling places locally and across the nation.

But that figure -- far below the expected state average of 73% -- is sure to increase as absentee and provisional ballots are tallied in coming days, officials said.

“We have pallets of [ballot] boxes that need to be processed,” said Brett Rawley, a spokesman for the registrar. “We hope to have estimates by Friday.”

Many states were predicting record turnouts, but California election officials estimated the statewide turnout at 73%, higher than the 71% recorded in the 2000 general election, but lower than the 75% turnout in 1992.

Orange County turnout in the 2000 general election was 73%, and 79% in 1992.

Whatever the final number, Orange County election officials predicted the turnout would be one of the highest in recent years.

On election day, some voters had to wait nearly three hours to vote because of long lines.

The big turnout strained some polling places as they ran low on supplies such as envelopes for provisional ballots and voter guides.

At Springbrook Elementary School in Irvine, poll workers ran out of fliers with voting instructions in English.

Norm Jones, 76, the volunteer inspector for the Springbrook poll site, drove to a nearby Office Depot and paid $7.89 to make 200 copies of the English leaflets.

“I am going to write it off my income tax,” Jones said.

County election officials said they rushed supplies to polling sites as quickly as possible and that there were no major problems.

“I don’t believe the experience [at Springbrook] was the norm,” said Rawley, the registrar’s spokesperson.

But there was one supply that consistently ran low at most of the polling places, Rawley conceded. The little “I Voted” stickers.

“It is probably one of the biggest requests we had,” he said.

“If that was our big problem, I think it is safe to say we had a very successful election.”