Southern California turns out to vote: undeterred by rain and long lines
Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
Voters line up in front of the Watts Towers polling place just before the polls
open this morning.
Lines grow throughout the morning, and voters circle blocks to find parking.
Many note a feeling of history in the making as they head to the polls.
By Joanna Lin and Kimi Yoshino
11:47 AM PST, November 4, 2008
As early-morning rain gave way to blue skies, Southern California voters
converged in long lines, circled for blocks to find an election-day parking
space and talked of history in the making.
Quintessential L.A. scenes abounded: More than 100 people stood in line at the
Venice Beach Lifeguard Station, steps from the Pacific Ocean, to cast their
ballot. Some voters spotted celebrities. "How I Met Your Mother" star Neil
Patrick Harris stood in a half-hour line in Sherman Oaks. And on downtown's
Skid Row, voters waited outside the Los Angeles Mission, serving as a precinct
for the first time.
Many said this election seemed different. Special.
Mark Lescroart, a neuroscience grad student at USC, stepped outside his Silver
Lake home early this morning, raised his camera to the horizon and snapped a
photo of the sunrise. He wanted to immortalize the first light of what he hoped
would be a new era: "It felt like history to me."
At the Allesandro School on Riverside Drive, where he voted for Barack Obama,
he also took pictures of his voter's guide and a sign that announced in six
languages the location of the polling place.
"Bush's presidency sort of coincided with my political awakening," he said,
noting that he cast his first vote in 2000. "It's been pretty awful and today,
this is something to be happy about."
Lines at polling places in predominantly African American neighborhoods were
particularly long as generations of voters arrived, many bringing their
children and grandchildren with them to witness the event.
At the Audubon Middle School in Baldwin Hills, where more than 300 people had
lined up to vote, Michelle Ellison, 47, waited with her 5-year-old grandson
Dilan. "I want him to understand this is history being made," she said. "It's
beautiful."
Some people abandoned routines to stand in line. Inglewood resident Alice
Williams wanted to vote in person because "people fought for me to wait in this
line," she said. "I'm voting."
Eric Khamvongsa, a Laotian immigrant and Long Beach resident, has been a
citizen since 1988, but voted for the first time Tuesday. Maria Gonzalez, a
woman in her mid-50s, became a citizen this summer after years as a legal
resident, in part to ensure she could vote this election.
She arrived at her precinct in Inglewood with her husband and one of her
daughters even before the polls opened. "Nosotros queremos cambio," she said.
"We want change."
In Orange County, Colleen Cross, 53, left her job as principal of Garden Grove
High School to drive to the Registrar's office because she lost her mail-in
ballot. "I've turned my house and work upside-down to try to find that ballot
for a week," Cross said. But not voting was not an option.
"I'm conservative, and family values are important to me," Cross said. "I see
the country taking a real liberal swing and it scares me to death."
Election Protection, a national non-partisan voter assistance group, reported
scattered problems as Los Angeles-area polling places opened this morning.
Ballots and voting machines arrived late; some didn't work at all. And power
was disrupted temporarily to at least four polling places in South Los Angeles.
In San Francisco, shortly after 7 a.m., the line snaked nearly a full block
outside a fire-station polling place in San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood.
Two hours later, as voters sipped coffee, read magazines and chatted on
cellphones in the chilly morning sunshine, poll workers ran out of ballots.
"People were patient, but they wanted to know how long it would be," said Donna
Siekel, 39. "I already had mine. . . . We wanted to come vote in person because
it's more fun, more of an event."
Within 10 minutes or so, a bright blue van sped up, resupplied the precinct and
voting began again.
Even before polling places opened at 7, Los Angeles County voters had already
broken a record, with a 14% voter turnout in early ballots alone, said Los
Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan.
With mail-in ballots and early in-person voting at the registrar's Norwalk
office, more than 625,000 ballots have been cast.
The early-voter turnout in Orange County was even larger: a record-breaking 29%
before election day.
In Los Angeles County, the nation's largest single voting district, more than
4.3 million people have registered to vote, beating a previous record of 4.14
million set in 2002, according to statistics from the registrar's office. About
3.9 million were registered to vote before the 2004 presidential election, with
79.1% actually voting.
Statewide, more than 41% of registered voters -- including 22.65% of the
county's voters -- had requested ballots to vote early. In Orange County, 40%
of voters requested vote-by-mail ballots. By Oct. 27, 229,189, or 35.6%, of
those ballots had been returned.
Logan said his office is prepared to handle the onslaught of voters at their
polling places and said there will be enough ballots.
"We want to reassure voters in L.A. County that they don't need to worry
whether or not there will be a ballot when they show up," Logan said. "There
will be a ballot for them."
Even if there is a shortage, the county has contingency plans that include the
delivery of additional ballots and use of emergency ballot supplies.
Jennifer Oldham and Kimi Yoshino are Times staff writers.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Times staff writers Harriet Ryan, Tony Barboza, Mike Anton, Joe Mozingo,
My-Thuan Tran and Corina Knoll contributed to this report.
