5:57 p.m.

Mt. SAC assistant lead emphasizes importance of being prepared

In recent years, Los Angeles County has provided a website which allows voters to do a pre-selection that could be used in the ballot polls.

Oscar Flores, assistant lead for the Mt. SAC ballot voting polls emphasized how important it is for voters to be prepared ahead of time, as this makes the flow of voting faster and easier.

Flores had volunteered to come and assist voters with any issues.

He said, “I came out here because of the experience that you get, like communicating with other people and helping them out, informing them of how important voting is.” 

He pointed out, there is a website that Los Angeles County provides voters to do a pre-selection, which will later create a QR code. 

The QR code can be used in the ballot polls, which allows the voters who are registered to scan the code and fill the ballot with the preselected information. 

Compared to other ballot voting polls that Flores has worked at, he noted this location inside of Mt. SAC’s Student Center has less traffic.

Flores said, “I believe the ballot center was previously located over at the library previous years so it was a little more accessory to voters, as opposed to here’s a little more complicated finding the place where it’s at, I think it’s just more about location.”

-Reporting by Lauren Cory

3:58 p.m.

The race for who the next governor will be has been at the forefront of California voters minds, with California having over 23.1 million registered voters, each candidate has campaigned for months to earn one of those votes.

However, this election cycle, it’s not just the governor’s replacement that is on the ballot. Seats for the lieutenant governor, insurance commissioner and a variety of judges in the state government are open. There are also seats open for the House of Representatives and the Senate that are on the ballot.

The candidate with the largest campaign is Democrat Tom Steyer. Steyer has spent $216.3 million on his campaign according to the Secretary of State office, breaking the record for the most spent on a governor campaign in California.

There are also measures on the ballot both locally and statewide that will affect California residents for years to come should they get passed.

Measure ER will affect residents of LA county in particular. This measure will raise the sales tax in LA county by half a percent in order to fund health care services for the next five years until October 2031, providing approximately $5 billion in revenue.

Measure ER was put on the ballot due to changes and cuts that came at the federal level to Medi-Cal and other things that affect the county’s healthcare and public health systems. These changes lead to higher demand for county services. Over the next three years, it is projected that they will lose $2.4 billion and face layoffs in the industry.

Today is the final day of voting. The lines of walk-in-voters in and out of the voting booth in the Mt. SAC Student Center has been constant.

Alyssa Valencia, 18, tells our student reporters that it is her first year being able to vote, and felt it was important to participate in the state’s primary election, as it is for any other election.

“Since it is my first year, it’s important to make sure that people know their vote matters now more than ever,” she said.

Polls will remain open until 8 p.m. today. Once they close, ballots will be counted and submitted. The Secretary of State’s office will provide updated numbers through the night. Voters up until 8 p.m. to be in line and be qualified to vote.