The queues were long and business was going well at Bear Creek High School in Stockton on election day morning.
The voting procedure went smoothly as officials toured polling stations and social esttainment was scrupulously implemented inside and outside the voting area.
And in the season of questionable voting, there were other people like Ousmane Sagna, who remembered the price of this civic duty.
“Every year I go to the polls and I am very proud that my children experience it for the first time,” said the native African. Sagna, 61, immigrated to the United States from Senegal 22 years later. Election Day is a public holiday. circle of relatives on vacation at home. This year it has taken on a new importance as his children, aged 18 and 21, voted for the first time, and his wife, Coura, 51, also with them. Sagna and his wife are naturalized US citizens; their children were born in America.
“I come from Africa and voting there is very difficult,” Sagna said. “This is an opportunity for us to vote as a family. America is a wonderful country, it gives us the opportunity to give ourselves a nonviolent and un threat-free vote. “. Look around you. Everything is smooth and I love it. “
Although polling stations took precautions to oppose the new coronavirus, the day may simply not escape its touch, as it reported that a member of the electoral staff at the Escalon electoral college had tested positive for COVID-19.
“At 6:15 a. m. this morning, I was informed that an election officer at a Escalon Voter Service Center located at the Escalon Community Center (at 1055 Escalon Avenue) had tested positive for COVID -19,” Melinda Dubroff, a Voters’ San Joaquin County Registeror, said in a statement. “We still don’t know when or where this person was first exposed to the virus. “
The 16 members who worked with the individual are lately quarantined, Dubroff said in the statement.
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In the last 3 days, before the election employee tested positive for COVID-19, about 50 more people voted at the voter center and another two hundred people voted in the facility’s internal user. The search for contacts will begin without delay in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health.
The facility, which opened at 7 a. m. for ballots and 8:30 a. m. for face-to-face voting, it underwent a thorough cleanup on Tuesday morning and new election officials were added to the intermediate voting service staff, he said.
Since it opened on Saturday, October 31, the Voter Services Center has followed all public fitness protocols through the county’s public fitness department, adding masks, gloves, face shields, social distance, hand disinfection, use of plexiglass windows, and complete cleaning. areas of work and many other precautions.
Dubroff added that the safest thing for voters who have already won a mail-in poll is to fill out the poll at home and deliver it to one of the 34 Voter Service Centers or 28 official polling stations. . org or by calling 468-VOTE (8683).
Voting was normal throughout San Joaquin County, polls filled up quickly, queues were reported at some polling stations, dissipating in some places, while in others they persisted a little longer, no unrest was reported with the vote in person.
At Moose Lodge on Davis Road in Stockton, a queue began forming at the door at 6:30 a. m. for the ballots, an election worker said, but he left temporarily and things went well with only a brief wait to vote. used hand sanitist and mask.
In Lodi, there was still no queue, a steady flow of voters in the middle of the morning on the grounds of the Lodi Grape Festival on Lockeford Street, adding Francisco “P. J. “Sanchez, 19, and his mother, Melinda Lagorio, 48.
“I would say it’s more of a duty (vote), ” said Sanchez. “I think everyone deserves to do it. I think everyone deserves to have a say in what’s going on. The fact that there are other people who do not vote is a concept for me. I’m very happy to be able to vote. “
Lagorio said she was also satisfied with voting, said it at the time or third ballot.
“For a long time, I wasn’t interested in politics and all that,” Lagorio said.
But a march to Washington, D. C. , with Francis, gave him a greater appreciation of American history and the sacrifices made to build democracy.
“Knowing that he was assaulted was a little, to me, very disturbing, ” said Lagorio. “So voting and thanking our founding fathers and the whole army is our privilege. That’s our right and thank you. “
At a county voting center inside ripon High School’s gymnasium, inconsistent voices were elegant with more than a hundred electorates consistent with the passage from hour to mid-morning, with virtually no rows.
Masks were needed to enter the center and everyone’s temperature was controlled by rubbing their hands with disinfectant.
John Delgado, who has been overseeing the site since he opened on Saturday, said Monday was the busiest day, but believed election day would get over it without a problem.
When asked why he thought there were more people waiting until Tuesday to vote, Delgado said, “I think other people are worried about what’s going on with the messaging system. I think they were involved in the (postal) ballots they won were samples. »
That’s how Joseph Peavy of Ripon and his mother, Gloria, felt, so that’s one of the reasons they gave up voting for a user on Tuesday.
“We believe there’s a lot of mail voting fraud, so we’re looking to make sure the votes were received,” Peavy said after he and his mother voted.
At Tracy’s Tom Hawkins Elementary School, Richard Henson, 49, voted for President Donald Trump.
Henson voted for Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Integrity is an important factor in each and every campaign. In my opinion, no politician has the highest point of integrity. Everybody’s betting the game. What I found out is that Trump, through all the broadcasts, sees that he achieved more than 50% of what he promised.
“When a candidate fulfills most of what he has promised, it is for the smart people of the country and I am totally in favor.