SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Voter turnout is expected to be high in the election to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Roughly 42% of registered voters in San Diego county cast their ballot by September 13th.
More than 830 thousand mail ballots are already being processed, while roughly 12,000 people voted in person at early voting locations, according to Cynthia Paes, Interim Registrar of Voters.
Turn out is expected to be around 70% compared with 67% during the 2003 gubernatorial recall election.
There are 221 voting locations and 131 mail ballot drop-off locations across the county.
The latest polls show the governor keeping his job, but Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UCSD, says republicans could still possibly pull ahead.
"What we saw in the 2020 election is that Republicans in CA now prefer to cast their ballots in person and, so as these vote centers have been opening up over the weekend and through election day, I think we'll see the next group of voters coming in more strongly Republican," said Kousser.
Rachel Dehart cast her vote to recall the governor Monday at the Registrar of Voters. She and her family own a business. She said the governor's lockdowns went too far.
"We had to let them go in the first pandemic, and now we're just trying to survive. If there are any more mandates coming through, I don't know if San Diego will recover from this," said Dehart.
Leneldon Henderson also voted Monday at the ROV. He said he doesn't agree with everything the governor did, but he believes Newsom should stay in office.
"What could the man do? It was a health situation. I think he thought he was doing the best for the state, even though he didn't do what he was telling other people to do," said Henderson.
Regardless of the outcome, Henderson believes it is important to vote.
"I did my duty. One person, sometimes, can make the difference."
