NEVADA CITY, Calif. June 7, 2018 – The ‘polling place experience’ where voters congregate with their neighbors and exercise their right to vote is a longstanding tradition on election day. In Nevada County, where the majority of voters already were vote-by-mail voters, polling places were replaced by vote centers for the first time. We asked the Elections Office how many people decided to vote ‘in person’ at one of the vote centers or the Elections Office. The answer: 1,873 out of 68,023 registered voters.

Nevada County participated in the pilot program for the Voters Choice Act (VCA), with mail-in ballots sent to all 68,000+ registered voters. The VCA requires the opening of vote centers, where voters can drop off voted ballots, register to vote and vote conditionally that same day and – any voter can vote in person up to the close of polls on election day.

Most of the vote centers were open the week before the election, giving voters the flexibility to cast their ballot anywhere. Any voter could drop of their mail-in ballot or vote in person.

Here are some of the totals of in-person voters for selected vote centers:

  • Best Western Gold Country Inn in the Brunswick Basin: 210 (187 on Election Day)
  • Gold Miners Inn in Grass Valley: 378 (329 on Election Day)
  • Higgins Lions Community: 276 (230 on Election Day)
  • Penn Valley Fire Station 43: 221 (187 on Election Day)
  • Truckee Town Hall Vote Center: 174 (136 on Election Day)

The Elections Office at the Rood Center also served as a vote center and 379 voters cast their ballot directly at the office, 279 on election day.