Polls are open and the poll workers are there for you—til 8 pm tonight

The polling place at Sebastopol Center for the Arts opened early this morning and will stay open until 8 pm. Dedicated poll workers are there to make sure everything runs smoothly.

At around 8 am this morning, there was a traffic jam with cars heading to the voting center at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. An hour or so later, the voters were still arriving, but not in bunches. They were greeted by poll workers who made sure people knew where to drop off ballots or fill out their own ballot on site.

“We've been open since 7 o'clock,” said Tom Bayless who has been a co-inspector for the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters. “We be open until 8 pm.” (The poll workers arrived at six in the morning.)

“My wife and I have been doing it for more than 10 years at different places, but we’ve been primarily here the last five years or so,” he said. “Six or seven of us here have done it here together multiple years.”

The polls have been open for 11 days. “It was slow in the beginning,” said Tom. He wondered if people knew the polling place was open.

There were only seven voting centers open in all of Sonoma County those first few days, and then, on the 30th, a lot of small polling places opened.

Bayless said that the majority of people drop off the ballot they received in the mail, more than come to vote in-person. “In Sebastopol, we have a lot of people that just still like to see this ballot box and drop it in.” About 40 or 50 people voted yesterday, Bayless said, which he thought was pretty good.

The turnout for a primary is typically lower than a general election. “People don't get as excited,” he said. “But tonight, just before 8 o'clock, we will have traffic backed up. I typically go out there and try to help people because it's a little bit hard from a car to lean in. We'll move people along. It happens every year.”

College student Tindra Nicklasson with Vote Center Inspector (i.e., the boss) Tom Bayless. Nicklasson has been volunteering at the polls since she was in high school. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Elizabeth Fugere greeted voters who were dropping off their mail-in ballots. They expect a lot of these today—ergo the two ballot boxes. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Poll workers Audrey Spall (left) and Wendy Bayless (right) help check voters in. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Scott Johnson and Daniela Kingwill manned the massive printer that prints out ballots for voters who want to vote at the Vote Center. The computer system allows them to create the correct ballot for any area in Sonoma County. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Teresita Milton and Douglas Lee at the station where people who get their ballots printed out at the Vote Center and vote there—either at long tables or private booths—turn in their ballots. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

Kevin Valle and Andrew Jackson of the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters picked up ballots from the Drop Box in front of SebArts on Tuesday morning. Jackson said Sebastopol was one of the busier polling places and that they wanted to make sure there was enough room in the box for all the ballots they expected last-minute voters to drop in the box. (Photo by Laura Hagar Rush)

In the middle of the afternoon at the Graton Community Center, there were plenty of poll workers but no voters. Kee Nethery was one of the 8 or so poll workers on site. About 40 people had dropped off ballots during the day, with only a few people voting in-person. Nethery said that it was unusual that several people from outside Sonoma County dropped off their ballots today in Graton.

After 8 pm, the poll workers will pack everything up and wait to come back for the general election in November.

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