Super Tuesday turnout highlights a lot at stake for voters: Immigration, foreign policy, mental healthcare among key concerns

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. — Residents in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are sending in their ballots this Super Tuesday, voting on key topics such as immigration, foreign policy and mental healthcare.

André Rhodes, a Santa Barbara resident of almost four decades, said life in this city has come with extreme hardship.

“I was convicted for something I never did here in Santa Barbara. Mental health came, talked to me, helped me, and they were there for me,” said Rhodes.

Rhodes said it’s important now more than ever to have his voice heard— saying that voting yes on Proposition 1 could transform the lives of countless people.

“Help supply more and more employees of mental health services here in the United States,” said Rhodes. "And it's not only California– it’s the whole United States because we got too many people out homeless. We got too many people out here starving. We got too many people out here not knowing where to go. We need services."

Proposition 1 authorizes over $6 billion in bonds to build mental health treatment facilities and provide housing for the unhoused.

But it’s not the only thing bringing voters to the polls.

"First of all, good legislators— number one," said Richard Temple, another Santa Barbara resident. "Doing the right thing for our community—Number two. Doing the right thing for our country—Number three, it's easy as that."

When it comes to casting their ballots, voters said that local issues are just as important as national ones.

“The most important issue in my mind is the border. I'm worried about the safety of our children and our adults,” said Robert Berlinger, who lives in Oxnard.

Immigration policy continues to be a polarizing issue for voters, with many saying it’s an issue of our humanity towards our neighbors.

“The people that are trying for a better life. And how can we as a nation deny people that when that was our that wasn't the premise of the country?" posed Terrence McBride, another Oxnard resident. "Give us a you know, you poor everybody that that you want a better life come here. And lots of people strive for that. Just to get here with nothing."

Despite some voters’ dissatisfaction with current politics, many said they still feel like their vote makes a difference.