SAN DIEGO — According to the San Diego County Registrar, around 90% of San Diegans who participate in elections vote by mail. So why do 10% still come to the polls to vote in person? CBS 8 headed out to multiple polling sites around the county Tuesday to ask voters why they make that extra effort.
“My reason was just mainly tradition,” said Paul Lavin, who cast his ballot at the Kennedy Recreation Center in El Cajon. Anna Maria Cassady voted in person at Chula Vista City Hall “because I didn't receive it in the mail, so I came here to vote.” Jose Garcia told us he planned to vote by mail, “but I made a mistake - so I came to change my ballot.”
The Registrar said another popular reason is accessibility.
“For a voter who may be visually impaired, they can easily vote independently with an audio ballot,” said Cynthia Paes. She added that over 5,000 people had already voted in person by noon Tuesday at the county's 217 voting centers. Some, who declined to be interviewed on camera, said they trust in-person voting more than mail voting.
Miguel Gonzalez said tradition is his main reason for voting in person.
“To me, it's more authentic and more real when you get to do it in person,” he said outside a polling center near his home in El Cajon. But he also admitted it gives him more peace of mind than mailing it in.
“I feel like here, it's just so professional,” Gonzalez said. “They check you in, after you're done, you can print out your information and then you hand it to an individual and they show you. They put it into a box and they make sure it's empty so - for me it's security that it's done this way.”
In 2021, California law changed, permanently requiring a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed to every active registered voter in the state, but even before that, the Registrar said many San Diegans quickly moved to voting by mail.
“There is quite a large percentage that enjoys the convenience of voting by mail,” Paes said.
That percentage has steadily grown over the years, but as Miguel Gonzalez put it - what matters isn't the way you vote, but the fact that you do vote. “As a citizen, you want to be able to help create change and that's what we need - everyone needs it. It's for the better and our future as well.”
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