Sonoma, Napa Counties ‘steady increase’ in early voter turnout ahead of Election Day

Nearly 41 percent of Sonoma County voters cast their ballots late Thursday in the 2024 election, a pivotal presidential race that many Americans consider one of the most important in the nation’s history.

Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Proto said turnout was strong, with 125,816 ballots returned, including nearly 2,000 early votes cast in person at polling centers, the first of which opened a week ago .

In Napa County, 31,434 ballots were cast, representing 37 percent of registered voters. Of these, 549 votes came from residents who voted in person at polling stations.

“We have a great turnout. We are above other elections,” said Proto. “I’ve always had a fantastic turnout. We are seeing very steady growth.”

Early voting in Napa and Sonoma counties is below that of the 2020 general election at this time. However, voting habits in 2020 have been changed by the pandemic, leading to a historic increase in early voting.

“2020 was a very strange year because of the pandemic,” Proto said.

In Sonoma County, early voter turnout varied by race and city. The city of Sonoma had the highest turnout, with about 3,819 ballots, or 50 percent, returned. More than 43 percent of Sebastopol voters and 39 percent of Santa Rosa voters had returned their ballots by Thursday.

Sonoma County District 1 ‒ represented by outgoing Supervisor Susan Gorin ‒ had the highest return rate at just over 47 percent. District 3, represented by Chris Coursey, was at 32.4 percent.

There are no supervisor races on the November ballot in either county, but dozens of city council, school board, special district and local measures are up for vote.

Proto said voter turnout right now before the 2022 election was 25 percent and 33 percent in 2018. Early comparisons to in-person voting with 2020 are difficult to make because at the time the county had no voter turnout centers. early voting in person. open 10 days before election day, same as now.

Another 24 of those vote centers will open Saturday in Sonoma County, in addition to the seven that have been open since Oct. 26.

Proto reminded voters that they can cast their vote at any polling station in the county as voters are no longer limited to an allocated constituency.

All 31 Sonoma County polling places they still have identical hours: 9:00 – 17:00, Saturday to Monday; Tuesday (Election Day), 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m

Napa County Vote Centers They are also open for in-person early voting in Napa, St. Helena, Yountville, Calistoga and American Canyon. They are open this weekend from 8:30am to 4:30pm; Mondays from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and on election day from 7.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.

In-person voters must submit their complete ballots by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 5 and must be received no later than Nov. 12 to be counted.

Napa County Registrar of Voters John Tuteur said the first unofficial results of mail-in ballots received by Sunday, Nov. 3, will be released on election night at 8:01 p.m.

Next, before 10 p.m., the county plans to release the unofficial tally of in-person ballots received during early voting on Oct. 7 and on Election Day, Tuteur said. Another unofficial release of results for in-person ballots will take place before midnight on Election Day, Tuteur said.

Proto said early in-person voting results before Election Day and primary ballots received over the weekend (and possibly Monday) will be released immediately after voting closes Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Periodic updates will follow, depending on how quickly ballots are processed after polls close, she said.

“We’ll have updates — we don’t know when, it depends on when the ballots come back to our office from the voting centers,” Proto said. “We will continue to update until we get all the ballots back from the voting centers.”

You can reach writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.