News Information and Media Site: California Today: Long Lines and a Surge for Sanders on Super Tuesday

March 4, 2020

By Jill Cowan

Voters standing in line to cast ballots at the Honor Fraser Gallery in Los Angeles on Super Tuesday.Josh Haner/The New York Times

Good morning.

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Well, Super Tuesday definitely had some super long waits.

We always knew we wouldn’t have final results by this morning, because, as elections officials have emphasized repeatedly, they’d rather ensure that every vote is counted, and counted correctly, than satisfy the appetite for instant gratification.

Nevertheless, The Associated Press called the primary for Senator Bernie Sanders almost immediately after the polls officially closed — even as hundreds of people continued to wait to vote.

And although state and local officials have been warning for weeks that lines could be long on Election Day, it seemed as if hourslong waits came as a surprise in Los Angeles.

The day started calmly enough. At about 10:30 a.m., I arrived at a voting center in MacArthur Park, where the line was only about a dozen deep.

I waltzed in, slid my own vote-by-mail ballot into a locked black box, then headed back outside onto the shadeless sidewalk to talk to a handful of voters, including Shirbey Greene, 80, and her daughter-in-law, Lydia Johnson, 49.

“Huge turnout,” Ms. Johnson said, surveying the line. “Really great to see.”

Soon, though, there were reports of the county’s new voting machines malfunctioning, of the new tablets that check in voters causing bottlenecks, and of voters standing in the sun, crowding into gyms and eating donated pizza as the sun set. All this began frustrating voters, campaign staff members and advocates.

[Read the full story about long lines to vote in Los Angeles.]

Early on Tuesday afternoon, Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, which runs the county’s elections, told me that waits of two hours at the University of California, Los Angeles, were probably attributable to larger numbers of student voters registering on-site — a new option for the state’s voters.

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But at sites across the county, voters reported similarly long lines. At a vote center in Carthay Circle, a line snaked from an elementary school hallway and around the edge of a tiny parking lot.

There was also confusion about whether there should be a separate line for those who had filled out their choices ahead of time on electronic sample ballots, which generated something called a poll pass.

Hours after the polls officially closed at 8 p.m., hundreds were still waiting; anyone who was in line at 8 p.m. was supposed to be able to cast a ballot, according to state officials.

Other places in the state were also reporting long wait times, but not in San Francisco, where Democratic leaders urged unity.

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As of late Tuesday night, more than 4.3 million vote-by-mail ballots had been returned from across the state, but that number was likely to rise by a lot as more ballots arrive in coming days.

Voting at a polling place inside Assumption Church in Boyle Heights.September Dawn Bottoms for The New York Times

In the meantime:

You can keep an eye on results as they come in here, both in the presidential primary, in key congressional primaries and the only statewide proposition on the ballot, a bond for aging public schools. (As of early this morning, it was failing, but, again, that could change.)
You can check your local news source for analysis and results of city, county and school district contests.
You can track presidential candidates’ delegate counts here.
You can read about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Tuesday, which started in Oakland and moved on to L.A., where he celebrated big wins in other states, and about Jill Biden’s time connecting with military families in San Diego.
You can learn about why the race to be Los Angeles’s district attorney and lead the largest prosecutor’s office in the country is significant in this opinion piece.
If you want to catch up on some of the context surrounding the primary, here’s a look at how Silicon Valley executives are saying, “Anyone but Sanders.” Their employees, on the other hand, are backing him.
And if you missed it, here’s an in-depth look at how the Latino vote could decide the 2020 race. (It’s still relevant.)

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[Also, if you experienced problems or long waits to vote anywhere in the state, tell us about what happened at CAtoday@nytimes.com.]

Here’s what else we’re following

We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.

California had its driest February on record. See how bad it was — and read about what that means. [The New York Times]
As the coronavirus outbreak has spread, officials, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, are trying to fight misinformation and anti-Asian bigotry. [The Los Angeles Times]

And here are the latest updates on the outbreak. [The New York Times]

“We assume that they’re trying to send a message to all legislators.” Lyft and Uber are signaling that they’re willing to spend a lot of money to unseat state lawmakers who opposed them in a fight over a contested new “gig” labor law. [The Wall Street Journal]
If you missed it, an owl that was rescued by a firefighter in the aftermath of the Maria Fire was released back into the wild. No word on if he’ll still answer to his nickname: “Ram,” for the football team. [The Ventura County Star]
And five lucky baby bison have joined the Golden Gate Herd. (They’re all females, so maybe they should be called the Golden Girls? Just a thought!) [The San Francisco Chronicle]

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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