Return those ballots
March 3 deadline looms
The March 3 Primary is just days away. Be sure to finish your ballots and mail them in or drop them off at the County Courthouse in downtown Quincy. Photo by Roni JavaMail in your March 3 Primary ballot as soon as possible. That’s the advice from Kathy Williams, Plumas County’s clerk/recorder and its chief elections official.
“Anyone who waits until March 3 to mail their ballot, it won’t be counted until Friday,” Williams said. That’s because three days are allowed for the ballots to be received in her office, the postmarks checked and signatures verified.
“In a close election, that means the results may not be known for a while,” she said.
Feather Publishing will post the information as it becomes available on election night on plumasnews.com, as well as after the final tallies.
Williams expects there to be a large turnout because it’s a presidential primary. When asked if she thought some voters, particularly from the Democratic Party, would delay voting due to the large number of candidates on the ballot, she said it was possible.
As of last week 25 percent of all registered voters had returned their ballots, including 956 Democrats, which is roughly 27 percent of registered Democrats.
That compares to the 1,927 Republicans who have returned their ballots, which is roughly 35 percent of the registered Republicans.
In addition to the presidential primary, the ballot features races for state assembly and senate, as well the First Congressional District.
Voters in three of the five county supervisorial districts will also be casting a ballot for their preferred candidate.
In District 4, the race is between Greg Hagwood and Melissa Bishop. Since there are just two candidates, a clear winner will be announced.
That probably won’t be the case for Districts 1 and 2, which each feature four candidates. An individual must receive 50 percent of the votes cast plus one to win outright. If that result isn’t achieved, the two top vote earners will head to a runoff in November.
Depending on how close the race is, and how many ballots are still outstanding, it’s possible that those two races might be too close to call on election night.
Plumas voter breakdown
Democratic Party: 3,524
Republican Party: 5,442
No Party Preference: 2,606
American Independent Party: 633
Green Party: 50
Libertarian Party: 156
Peace and Freedom Party: 39
Other: 21
Total: 12,471
