Workers busier than usual on eve of midterm election in Santa Barbara County

Voters may notice a new tent at the entrance to Santa Barbara County Elections.

Crews put up a tent to handle the anticipated midterm turn out, but voters don’t have to get out of their cars to drop their ballots in a drive-up ballot box.

Tessa Boyce stopped by on Monday afternoon. “I actually work about a mile down the road so it is extremely convenient, ” said Boyce who used to live and vote in Colorado.

Registrar of Voters Joe Holland said his workers are keeping busy with Vote my Mail ballots.

“What we do with our ballots is we run them through and check signatures against what we have, ” said Holland.

Voters can then go to https://sbcvote.com. and find out if it has been received.

The ballots are flattened out by other workers using empty water bottles tops and other containers to smooth the large pages out.

Holland said the law allows voters to register on the same day as the election. The law allows voters to get provisional ballots they can hand in to election headquarters in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Lompoc.

The first ballot count will be released Tuesday at 8:05 p.m. Workers expect to be on the job past midnight.

“This midterm is very exciting we are actually seeing a greater turn out than we ‘ve probably seen in any midterm in the history of Santa Barbara County so we’re really excited about the energy behind this election so we are really excited about the energy behind this election and looking forward to folks getting out there to vote on Election Day,” said Holland.