Early postal ballots in Sonoma and Napa counties are trending behind high anticipated returns in the 2020 presidential election, according to election officials.

Tens of thousands of ballots have been received at the pair of electoral offices, where they are ready for processing on November 5. presidential elections.

“We are working hard to prepare for the in-person vote, which starts and continue to process the postal vote we receive, ensuring we will be ready to support the public regardless of whether they choose to vote. the next two weeks,” said Deva Proto, the registrar of voters in Sonoma County.

“Get out and vote,” she added.

As of Friday, Sonoma County had received 66,091 ballots, Proto said. The county had 309,263 registered voters as of Friday.

In Napa County, 16,794 ballots were returned, Clerk of Voters John Tuteur said. On Friday, there were 85,000 registered voters in the county.

Returns so far in Sonoma County equate to 21.5 percent voter turnout at this point, which Proto said he expected to see, adding that the county’s sorting machine was down Thursday, so the office is catching up with sorting of returned ballots.

The rate is below 2020, when yields had reached 32 percent at the same time, Proto said.

In Napa, Friday’s ballots were 50 percent behind the same time during the 2020 presidential election, Tuteur said.

Proto said the pandemic likely played a role in Sonoma County’s higher early yields in 2020.

“There has been a lot of concern because of the pandemic that the USPS can handle the volume of mail-in voting nationwide,” Proto said. “There was a really big, concerted push by a lot of different organizations to get the ballots back early.”

Statewide, 3.6 million ballots have been returned so far in California, part of the 35.4 million ballots already cast nationally, the reported to the Washington Post Friday.

Proto expects overall voter turnout in Sonoma County to reach 85 percent to 90 percent, which is tied for the county for the most recent general election. She said she could not estimate how turnout would split between the number of mail-in ballots and in-person voting.

Tuteur said he is not publicly projecting overall voter turnout.

Both Napa and Sonoma counties participate in the Voters Choice Act election model, which allows voting centers to open in two phases — the first group opens on Saturday, 11 days before Election Day, and additional centers will open four days later before on November 2. .

Voters can cast their vote at any polling center in the county and not at a specific assigned polling station.

In Sonoma County, Santa Rosa Transit, Petaluma Transit and Sonoma County Transit will offer free transportation on all fixed routes on Election Day, according to the city Santa Rosa’s website.

“By providing free transit on Election Day, the three transit agencies hope to reduce transportation and economic barriers to voting at the county level, including for people who regularly rely on public transit for mobility,” a statement said. announcement on the website.

All polling centers and ballot boxes will close at 8pm on 5 November. Details of voting center and ballot box locations and times are available online via Sonoma County and Napa County voter registration sites.

October 29 is the deadline to request a postal ballot. Voters mailing in ballots must ensure they are postmarked on or before November 5th. Ballots must be received by mail no later than November 12 to be counted. Voters can track their mail-in ballot by registering online by state.

In-person votes will be included in the results shared on election night, Proto said. Her advice to anyone voting by mail and hoping their vote will be included in election night reports: “Return your ballot early.”

You can reach writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MurphReports.