Hundreds in Santa Barbara County show up on Election Day to register to vote

Generally, Election Day can be chaotic and at times, downright intimidating with all of those big lines at the polls.

Santa Barbara County in particular benefits from mail-in ballots, however, with the large numbers of voters expected to participate in the 2018 Midterm Elections — more than any other in recent memory — we decided to ask county election officials if there were any unexpected issues. There was one big one.

Santa Barbara County Clerk-Recorder Joseph Holland said the biggest issue Tuesday night for Santa Barbara County election officials was “the number of voters who came in to our three offices [Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Santa Maria] and registered to vote on Election Day.”

Holland explained this action of registering to vote so late in the game is called Conditional Voter Registration in order to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.

Holland said hundreds of these so-called Conditional Voters showed up Tuesday night.

Election officials expect a historic turnout in terms of number of votes cast for a mid-term election. More concrete numbers are expected to come out on Wednesday and days ahead.