Monterey County voter turnout

“We have all our polling places staffed,” said Claudio Valenzuela, Monterey County office registrar.

Sixty-eight precincts at 48 different locations opened Tuesday for the 2015 election with only about 20-30% percent of voters expected to turnout.

“I think that’s tragic because really a lot more people are affected,” said voter Lorianne Caranchini.

Election officials say the gubernatorial and presidential elections are the ones that typically get people out with about 45-80% percent turnout.

For races like school district seats, that’s not usually the case.

“Sometimes people fail to make the connection between local governments and local elections,” said Valenzuela.

“They are making the decisions for us and we depend upon them so we definitely want someone to support what we are looking to achieve,” said Caranchini.

Election officials say a different attitude about voting between the younger and older generations could also be having an impact.

“It’s a different generation so we’re trying to capture that generation by all means possible, said Valenzuela. “Outreach information out there, social media.”

Monterey County is also participating in a pilot project that will allow it to run local elections entirely by mail with a few voting centers in each city.

“We hope that that pilot program that runs until 2018 will give us enough data to find out if we can run vote by mail elections and increase the participation, said Valenzuela.

Election officials also say any ballot postmarked Tuesday and received by this Friday will be counted.