Polling places across Santa Clarita Valley filled up with thousands of residents ready to vote on Tuesday.
Election Day has come with much anticipation on which candidates will win tight races anticipated at all levels.
Two first-time voters, Faith Lewis and Lorenzo Perinotto, said with this being their first election in which they are eligible to vote they both recognized there were high stakes at risk, and it was important for them to participate.
“I think it is important that we are all heard, and a lot of people aren’t heard,” said Lewis. “I think it is important we all do our part in what we want for the future.”
Lewis said she prepared for voting by doing her own research, listening to what people had to say on different topics and considering their points of view and then considering her own values and choosing what she thought would be a personal best to her.
Both Lewis and Perinotto mentioned there were some fears and hesitation about voting in this election.
“I almost didn’t come because you know you’re becoming a big part of society’s choice in what we want for our future,” said Lewis. “It’s scary because you don’t know what the future holds so you don’t want to be a part of the negative side of things, you want to be a part of the good side of things.”
Lewis added that it takes a lot to find the courage to realize that, regardless of how you cast your vote, if things do not work out it does not fall directly on the person.
Ethan Goodman, Saugus resident, said he decided to vote Tuesday because there were many propositions he felt his voice needed to be heard on.
“Presidential race aside, there’s a lot more going on in our state alone,” said Goodman. “Like all the measures that are being pushed out in front of us and I think it’s important that everybody has their voice heard.”
Ryan Kacer, a poll leader, said it was people’s civic duty as Americans to participate in the election and that was the reason he volunteered to work at the polling centers.
Kacer said he had seen hundreds of people since Saturday come to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help voting center to cast their vote.
“Voter turnout the first couple of days was in the high 100s to the low 200s. Yesterday there was about 400 people but, including drop-offs, there were about 550,” said Kacer. “Today my estimation is that we’re probably going to see double or triple that number. We’ve seen a good amount of people turn out.”
Gary Coster, a polling center coordinator, said he saw that the polling booths were much busier in the morning, and then started to ease out throughout the day.
Coster said he has volunteered before and this year as a coordinator he has been switching among four locations making sure everything runs smoothly. He said they monitor the ballot marking devices, help answer questions and move everything efficiently.
Volunteer Dan Brown said he thought it had been a good voter turnout this year and he saw a mix of voters ranging in all ages coming to vote.
“The first day we were here, we had almost 450 voters already,” said Brown.
Brown said he chose to help out this election because he wanted to ensure that everything was legitimate at the polling places.
“I was just not convinced that everything was legitimate in this state, and I was concerned about it,” said Brown. “After learning about this, I’m convinced that the chain of custody at the polling places is very good.”
As far as the process of casting your vote at a polling place goes, Brown said he felt he could be confident in the system after he went through his training and learned about how the processes is handled.
Brown did mention he was still not comfortable with what happens after the ballot leaves the specific polling place because he did not know what happens afterwards.
Kacer said that he noticed this election has been very contested and people will have to see what comes Wednesday morning.
