AgdaPkt 2015-05-18 Closed and Joint SA and PFA

Browse Search

7.1.D. - Page 23 higher than the turnout in the last small polling place election in Davis on November 3, 2009 which had a turnout of 33%. In West Sacramento, the turnout was 23.9% which kept up with the closest comparable polling place election in the city on November 6, 2007 which had 24% turnout. The signs directing people to the polling places in both cities appeared to pull in many people who were passing by and had not sent in the ballot they received a month earlier, so without the polling places they might not have voted. Even more used the polling places as drop boxes for their ballots and the fact that they could leave the ballot with human beings provided assurance that the ballot was received and a sense of being part of the community on top of that. The uptake of `I Voted' stickers indicated that people liked the idea of showing others on that day that they had in fact voted. While it was important to provide accessible voting machines for people to use on Election Day, that did not appear to be the reason for or consequence of their visits to the polling places. Also, our observations indicated that there was a need for more education about the all-vote-by-mail election process. Information was provided in three main ways, the Yolo Elections website, the sample ballots, and the local news. The sample ballots had the most comprehensive set of information about the process, but we know that many people do not read these materials and it may have been a problem that for some people their sample ballots arrived after the actual ballots.32 Also, because the actual ballots arrived approximately one month before Election Day, there is reason to believe that some voters did not understand the connection between the two and it is likely that some voters did 32 See The Davis Enterprise,February 13,2013 `More than 3000 Measure I votes returned,so far,' by Tom Sakash 17