Voters flock to the polls

Alex Coolman

A close election brought Newport-Mesa voters out in strong numbers

Tuesday, with poll workers saying they saw a better turnout than they had

witnessed in years.

At the Veterans Memorial Hall on 18th Street in Costa Mesa, poll

worker Alayne Rasch on Tuesday afternoon said voter response exceeded

anything she had encountered in six years of doing the job.

“I’ve never seen [a turnout] so heavy so early in the morning and so

continuously through the day,” she said.

Stella Kahrer, another election worker, said a surprising number of

the people who turned out had never bothered to vote in the past.

“We’ve had quite a few people who are first-time voters, and they’re

in their 40s,” she said. “One guy said he had been a protester years ago.

But he had never voted.”

The most important factor motivating turnout, judging by the comments

of voters leaving the polls, was the tight presidential race between Al

Gore and George W. Bush.

“It’s important,” said Terry, a Costa Mesa resident who declined to

give her last name. “I want to make darn sure that one of [the

presidential candidates] didn’t get in.”

Terry initially would not say which candidate she was referring to,

but her comments a moment later may have given an indication.

“It makes me angry,” she exclaimed. “I bet three-quarters of the

people who elected Bush the governor of Texas thought they were voting

for his father.”

In Newport Beach, poll workers saw extraordinary turnouts as well.

“This is probably the best I’ve seen,” said Gregory Ernst, a poll

worker at the City Hall voting location, who said this was his fourth

election as a staffer.

Despite the hype that accompanied Measures S and T, several voters at

City Hall said they had no idea what the dueling city initiatives were

about.

And Newport resident Dennis Matthews said it was Proposition 36, a

state measure that would change the way nonviolent drug offenses are

handled, that drew him to the polls.

“I think people should have a second chance instead of going to jail,”

Matthews said.

Most people, however, said they came out because of the presidential

race.

Justin Walseth, 19, was voting for the first time. He said he was

voting for Bush.

“I’m confident” about the Republican’s chances for victory, he said.

To him, it seemed like a Bush victory could make a difference in

Newport Beach.

“Things we don’t think affect us actually do,” Walseth said.