Boy Scouts from Troupe 855 were on hand at HEW to receive the first ballot deliveries from around the county Tuesday night. There was an air of excitement as volunteers and observers awaited some of the first ballot boxes.
Clerk-Recorder Kathleen Williams said she changed a number of polling places for the election to get precincts with less than 1,000 people and to give former mail voters a real place to cast a ballot. That shifted voters to places they weren't used to, and poll workers said there was confusion.
The county's chief election official said many people had called in, but most had been satisfied when given an explanation and the correct place to vote.
Gallino admitted his new polling place was on his voter information pamphlet but said he and his surprised neighbors - some of whom have voted at the Veterans Building since 1970 - didn't think to check it.
"It was a real shock to me," Gallino said. "The place I went to (a nearby church) had the same problem. The people there had to go somewhere else to vote."
"I'm interned at the state capitol, so I'm into politics," said Jacelyn Swartz. "I told all my friends to vote today and hopefully they will come out and make change for younger people."
"The measures were important," said Roger Marchese. "We have a particular viewpoint espoused by the governor in the propositions and the duty to accept or reject them."
Absentee ballots flooded the Nevada County elections office during the week before the election and last night, with voters bringing them to county election headquarters at the last minute.
Absentee balloting has been steady in Nevada County in recent years after state requirements to use them were relaxed. In the 1990 general gubernatorial election, about 21 percent of those who voted, or 7,400, did so by absentee, according to county statistics.
That climbed to 45 percent of those who voted, or 20,000, in the October 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis and election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. At last year's presidential general election, 27,000 voters, or 49 percent who voted, were absentee in Nevada County.
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