Soquel residents register to vote at a local brewery

It was just another weekend at a Soquel brewery. People enjoyed the weather with live music and cold beer. Although, Saturday was different. Santa Cruz County showed up to help people register to vote in the November election.

Hours earlier, and 3,000 miles away in Washington, senators confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers. This is something he has denied. Saturday’s confirmation enraged many voters, including multiple people I spoke with on the Central Coast.

“What I’m hoping is that this further energizes the democrats across the country. Every election, they say, is the most important election. This year, it couldn’t be more important,” said Santa Cruz resident, Donald Wright.

In the last midterm election in November 2014, just 50% of registered voters in Santa Cruz County came out on election day. County election official, Helen Ruiz-Thomas, said people are more interested this time around. “People that have been sleeping are waking up and saying, ‘I want to take action.’ ‘How can I take action?'” said Thomas.

The brewery even made it easy for their customers to register to vote. They printed a bar code on their beers, which takes you directly to the registration site.

Dozens of them were scanned at the bar, Saturday. If not the beer, our divided political climate is energizing people to vote. “There’s a lot of unrest right now with voters and so I think you’re gonna see a bigger turnout this year than in previous years,” said Santa Cruz resident, Todd Ford.