If you stood in line Tuesday night, waiting hours to vote in Merced County, your polling place wasn’t an anomaly.
Election officials on Wednesday said every one of Merced County’s 14 vote centers had voters in line Tuesday night at 8 p.m. when the polls closed.
As a result, election staff worked for several hours after 8 p.m. to ensure every person in line cast a ballot, the Merced County’s Registrar of Voters reported. By law, if eligible voters are in line at the polls by 8 p.m., they cannot be turned away.
County election workers finished getting everyone voted by midnight in an election that could very well see record turnout, Registrar Melvin Levey said.
For example, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in north Merced had several hundred people in line at 8 p.m.
The county as a whole saw a surge of in-person voters later in the day on Election Day, many of them young, first-time voters and people voting using same-day registration, Levey said.
“We saw a lot of first-time voters, so folks who had not previously engaged in the process, or maybe were too young previously, who are now suddenly passionate about it,” Levey said. “…They were really excited to be voting out there. It was kind of cool.”
Merced County vote centers saw 9,000 people vote in-person, Levey said. Plus, an additional 2,500 provisional and conditional ballots were cast. In the March primary election, when it’s typical to see lower voter turnout, about 2,900 people voted in person countywide.
It’s unclear what exactly drove the late surge in young, first-time voters, Levey said. It could be a number of factors, ranging from organized campaigns trying to get out to vote or rally support, or different races and issues on the ballot that could have motivated and excited voters.
Despite some long wait times to cast ballots and the high stakes and anxiety over the election outcome, Merced County voters appeared to be in good spirits and remained determined to cast ballots.
“They were being really patient. They were being kind to one another. They were being kind to the poll workers,” Levey said. “I was really impressed, actually, with how upbeat and positive and calm everyone was.”
Couple barely made it to polls on time
Among those good-natured voters was Maira Gonzalez and her husband Carlos Garcia. They were among the last in line to arrive at St. Patrick’s on Tuesday, literally with a minute or two left on the clock before the 8 p.m. poll closure hit.
After Gonzalez and Garcia made it into line, poll workers had to turn away others who arrived just a minute or two past 8 p.m.
Explaining why they arrived so late, Gonzalez said her husband works in Sacramento. The couple wanted to vote together, and Garcia had just made it back into town. Still, the couple was happy that they made it to the poll just in time.
When asked why it was so important to vote, despite having to wait hours in line, Gonzalez replied “for our country, of course. For everybody’s family’s sake.”
At a few vote centers Levey visited, everyone in the vote center broke out in applause and cheers when a first-time voter cast their ballot.
Another resident, Brooke Offhaus, said she was committed to casting her vote, even though she was still standing in line at 7 p.m. She said she arrived at St. Patrick’s Church at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“It is exciting to see everybody here,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a passion in the air. It’s kind of nice that people are happy and excited to vote.”
Levey and his staff are in the process of tallying mail-in ballots received over the last couple days. He expects to continue receiving ballots postmarked on Tuesday until around Nov. 12.
By Thursday, the local elections office will have more data and a better picture of what the final turnout will look like. During the last presidential election, which was Nov. 2020, Merced County saw 79% of registered voters participate, the county’s highest voter turnout in recent memory. Levey said he wouldn’t be surprised if turnout this year is somewhere near that.
Prior to Election Day on Tuesday, roughly 25% of registered voters in Merced County had already cast their ballots.
Under California law, all counties must certify their vote count by Dec. 3. Levey expects an unofficial total vote count to be finalized before the end of November.