The San Diego County Registrar of Voters thinks there's a good chance there will be a record number of people at the polls next Tuesday.
"We're anticipating definitely on the high side for voter turnout," Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler said. "Four years ago, we had a 76 percent turnout, and I'm guessing that it's probably going to be at least that level, and very probably higher,"
According to Seiler, more than 9,000 San Diegans have already voted since early voting got under way Oct. 6. More than 250,000 ballots have already been sent back as well .
"We've really had to ramp up to deal with this level of participation," Seiler said.
New steps being taken by the San Diego Registrar's office to try to help things go smoothly Election Day include: adding 45 voting precincts to handle the volume expected on Election Day, ordering more ballots for the polling places and adding extra shifts of workers.
"For election night, we're adding 50 additional scanners to scan the ballots," Seiler said. "Hopefully that process will go reasonably well."
The situation is not isolated to California. Louisiana's early voters are out in unprecedented numbers, with voters taking as long as three hours to cast their ballots. And in Florida, they're seeing long lines and more than 1 million early voters, plus another 1 million absentee ballots so far.
