Bay Area Voter Turnout "Dismal" in Tuesday's Election

-By Bay City News Service

Voters throughout the Bay Area participated in Tuesday's primary election by casting a ballot at the polls or submitting a vote-by-mail ballot, but the number of registered voters exercising their right was fairly low, according to preliminary counts.

As Sonoma County registrar of voters Janice Atkinson put it, voter turnout "was dismal." Within that county, 37 percent of registered voters cast a ballot, as of Tuesday night. However disappointingly low the numbers of voters who participated in the election, Sonoma County had one of the highest rates in the Bay Area.

Marin and Contra Costa counties yielded the second and third highest voter turnout percentages with 35.44 percent and 30.78 percent, respectively.

Alameda County had the lowest number of people voting within the Bay Area, with 21.29 percent casting a vote. Only 8.8 percent went to a polling place, according to the county registrar of voters.

About 25 percent of eligible voters voted in Santa Clara County, with nearly 19 percent of participating voters submitting ballots by mail.

Napa and Solano Counties saw similar voter turnout rates with about 28 percent casting a ballot.

In San Mateo County, the elections office counted 27.7 percent of voters participated in the primary.

Nearly 25 percent of San Francisco voters marked their ballots, but just less than 10 percent made it out to a polling place. Rather, nearly 15 percent voted by mail, according to the county elections department.