By Jana Kadah, Bay City News
Santa Clara County is set to break yet another record this election cycle.
The Bay Area’s most populous county registered a record of over 1 million registered voters, it has surpassed voter turnout from the 2016 presidential election and now it is only 2 percent away from beating the 2008 turnout by percentage of registered voters and potentially could topple the county’s all-time record.
Currently, there are about 858,000 ballots counted, but with mail-in ballots still coming in, the number is expected to grow, according to the Registrar of Voters office.
The 84 percent turnout among the 1,025,357 voters registered is just short of the 2008 record of 86 percent.
“The early returns were staggering,” Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey said. “We told people that the best way to vote during a pandemic was by mail, and many heeded that call.”
The number of registered voters and ballots cast in 2008 is significantly smaller—with 788,821 registered voters and 678,033 ballots cast.
“For those who registered to vote for this election, you are what pushed us over the one million mark for voter registration in Santa Clara County, and that’s a record,” said Bushey. “And for everyone who took some time for democracy to cast a ballot, either early by mail or in-person at one of our Vote Centers—your voice will be heard.”
In California, mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Tuesday can be received and counted up to 17 days after the election. This means the Registrar of Voters office would need to receive more than 23,000 ballots in the next two weeks to break the record.
