SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tamara Walton lives down the street from the Greater Sacramento Urban League in North Sacramento’s Del Paso Heights Community, where Sacramento County hosted one of its vote centers.
“I always say, ‘Ugh, I don’t feel like voting!’ but then I just get up and I go do it because every vote counts,” Walton told ABC10 while casting her ballot at the Urban League vote center. “I just feel more comfortable coming in person. I’ve been coming in person since I was 18. And I know people here, so it’s nice to see faces.”
Her 18-year-old daughter voted for the first time, and Walton brought her five-year-old son when voting Tuesday afternoon. As a person of color, she said, she feels it’s especially important to exercise her right to vote.
“People of color don’t normally feel like their voices are heard, and I feel like we may not vote all the time, so I just want to show them that it’s important to vote,” Walton said. “Even if it doesn’t go the way that we wanted it to, you know, just know that our opinion mattered and our vote counted.”
The mistrust she described in her community is one-way people worry their votes don’t count.
Over at the Citrus Heights Community Center – typically one of Sacramento County’s busiest vote centers - first-time voter Jenny Hazlip, who turned 18 in July, cast her first-ever ballot.
ABC10 asked Hazlip whether other young people ought to vote in the next election.
“Yeah, because your vote matters, even though who knows where it’s going to go, but your vote does count," Hazlip said.
Hazlip wasn’t the only voter with questions, concerns, or doubts about the voting process.
Larry Miramontes – who oversees the vote center at the Citrus Heights Community Center – said he fielded questions from people throughout the day.
“There is a general mistrust of the system right now, and it’s not because you should mistrust it. It’s just that people are feeling a little disillusioned,” Miramontes said.
He estimates this applies to 10-20% of voters-- not everyone.
“There’s a lot of people that do not understand the process. We explain to them that this is a manual process and that everything is handled manually and nothing is handled through electronics here,” Miramontes said. “We also let them know that the ballots themselves and ballot boxes are always under control by authorized personnel.”
Everyone waiting to vote at 8 p.m. was allowed to finish—including one voter who arrived at 8 p.m. sharp — after which an elections officer shouted into the empty hallway, per Sacramento County protocol, “Hear ye! Hear ye! The polls are now closed!”
Elections officials are now busily making sure everybody’s vote does count.
