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Southland Voters Hit The Polls For 2014 Primary Election, As Turnout Looks To Hit All Time Low

GARDENA (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk reports voter turnout was 14.69 percent at Tuesday's primary as of 7 p.m.

Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said the figure was based on random sampling, and is well below the 20 percent of the county's 4.8 million eligible voters the office hoped would turn out to cast their ballots.

2014 Primary Election Results

KCAL9's Dave Lopez reports the opening of a polling place in Fire Station 10 on Olive Street, not far from downtown, was delayed for more than five hours after an inspector failed to show up.

By 10 a.m., poll workers had turned about 35 voters away.

"It's four hours now, so it sounds [like] we're falling through the cracks," poll worker Dr. Thomas Halle said at the time.

Some were undeterred.

"I will get groceries and get some lunch and check back. I will keep on coming back," one local resident said. "I gotta vote and voice my opinion," he said.

"[There's] no place to vote. I have been here since about 7:30," another woman added.

The polling place eventually opened around noon.

Such delays weren't the case everywhere.

However, Lopez reports that by 2 p.m. in Gardena, 43 out of a possible 450 registered voters had cast their ballots since polls opened at 7 a.m.

"I'm not really interested in the whole politics and the whole trying to figure out what's going on," one woman said.

Logan on Monday told KCAL9/CBS2 more than 230,000 absentee ballots had been returned to the Registrar's office. In L.A. County, that number is just 15 percent of the 1.5 million voters who requested them.

There are many key issues for LA County voters to decide in this election. Among them : who will be the sheriff; who will fill two County Board of Supervisors seats up for grabs; and who will be the candidates for governor in November. All candidates names appear on one ballot for Tuesday's open primary, and the two with the most votes will face each other in November, regardless of party affiliation.

If a sheriff candidate were to win more than 50 percent of the vote, they would win the contest outright.

In Orange County, voters will also decide on the District Attorney, Assessor, Clerk-Recorder, County Board of Supervisor and one Congressional and Senate race.

"We have about 4,600 polling places that will be open... and about 18,000 poll workers," Logan said, urging those who have not yet voted to do so.

Additional information about polling places is available on the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk website.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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