The registrar of voters mailed about 966,000 ballots to registered voters in Alameda County this year, with 78,897 of those going to Berkeley residents. As of Tuesday morning, voters had returned at least 620,000 of these ballots, either by mailing them back, dropping them into a ballot drop box, or handing them to poll workers.
This year’s number of returned ballots already shatters previous records. In the 2016 presidential election, 444,988 voters returned ballots they got in the mail. So far this year, the number of returned ballots is just about 8,000 shy of the total number of all ballots cast—including in-person votes—in the 2008 election that resulted in Barack Obama’s historic win.
With only mail-in ballots counted so far, Alameda County already has a 64% turnout rate. The registrar of voters has yet to count in-person ballots from voting centers, so turnout will grow Tuesday. The registrar of voters will have 17 days to count all of the ballots that are dropped off or postmarked by Election Day.
Berkeley voters have returned at least 67% of their ballots so far. District 5 has seen the highest turnout rate so far, with ballots already received for 78% of residents there. District 7 (the student district) has the lowest turnout rate so far, at 47%.
