Voters, election officials share thoughts on upcoming state primary

Santa Cruz County Clerk staff were busy holding their own signs at the Santa Cruz Pride Parade and Festival on Sunday.

In this case, they were trying to get people to register to vote.

“Every election we are super busy. We continue to need volunteers for that day, and we are still looking for volunteers at the moment,” said Helen Ruiz-Thomas, the program coordinator for voter registration and outreach for Santa Cruz County.

There are over 150,000 registered voters in that county. Early voting already started and will continue until Tuesday.

Jordan Alfaro, who moved from Fresno to Santa Cruz, just registered to vote in the county on Sunday. She is looking for candidates who can help her wallet.

“Rent. That’s going up a lot. Just because I’m a student and I’m looking for housing and that’s kind of a struggle right now,” she said.

The state and its counties already sent out their voter information guides, but sometimes it is not enough.

“Whenever there’s a lot of items for people to consider on their ballot, we can calls regarding questions about them,” said Ruiz-Thomas.

There were some honest voters on the streets as well.

“For me the propositions I read them at face value,” said Bruce Thurman, a registered Santa Cruz County voter. “I’m kind of a busy guy, so I read them over a couple times.”

Santa Cruz County superior court judge candidate Syda Cogliati was out at the festival campaigning for every last voter.

“I’ve been up as far as Davenport up to the valley down to Watsonville here in Santa Cruz,” she said. “We’ve been walking precincts for months and months, meeting voters, talking to voters, and making sure they have a voice in this election.”

A very popular way for candidates to showcase themselves: campaign signs. Like them or not, the law in Monterey County, at least, is that they have to be removed within 10 days after the election.

In Salinas, some voters are skeptical about today’s politics. One voter said he finds it hard to believe everything he hears coming from people running for office, especially campaign ads.

“I ignore them. They don’t really mean anything,” said Peter Garth Andresen, a registered Monterey County voter. “I don’t want to vote for the handsome people, right? I want to watch the sound bites, I want to watch the quotes. I want to watch out for (what’s pretty) because it’s all misleading, I want to focus on the issues.”