Early Voting Begins Saturday In Los Angeles County

SHERMAN OAKS (CBSLA) — Early voting centers will open Saturday in Los Angeles County featuring new technology to cast a ballot, but some people are concerned that all of the changes could lead to confusion.

"I'm just a little bit nervous that there's not been enough preparation," a voting worker said.

For the first time, Los Angeles County voters will use a modern touch-pad ballot marking device to make their selections. Those selections will then be printed out on a paper ballot, but workers said there have been issues.

"I think in our training class we had 10 people, and I think there were six paper jams," the voting worker said.

And, she said, the new technology is not the only issue. She said she received the list of poll workers late and that setup at her voting center did not start as early as it has in the past.

As for voters, the biggest change will come with where they vote, since not all past neighborhood polling locations have been converted to voting centers. A list of voting centers and their hours can be found on the county registrar's website.

There were previously 4200 voting sites in LA County. That number has been cut to 976 with 232 of them scheduled to open Saturday for the 11 day run. The rest will be open by next Saturday for a four day voting period.

The good news is that voters will now have 11 days to cast their ballots.

And the voting worker said she was not against the new system, she said she just wants the primary election to run as smoothly as possible.

"I want everyone to have a good experience so they can vote more in the future," she said.