3.4 Million Ballots Predicted in L.A. County

LOS ANGELES -- With official turnout estimates exceeding 80 percent, voting rights advocates Sunday demanded that Los Angeles County officials print and rush printed ballots to every precinct to ensure that a 100 percent turnout could be accommodated.

The demand comes as Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan put out a plea for voters to cast their ballots between 9-11 a.m. and 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday to avoid lines that could last several hours at peak voting times.Voting officials are wondering if the system can accommodate about 3.4 million people expected to inundate the polls.

"We're getting about 18,000 telephone calls a day," said Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan. "The phone companies are telling us it's equivalent to what happens when there is an earthquake and it jams the phone lines."

More than 1 million Californians have registered to vote since Sept. 5, raising the state's voter registration to an all-time high of 17.3 million. Los Angeles County registration now stands at 4.3 million, also a record, and up more than 350,000 voters from 2004, Logan told the Daily News.

And the elections boss anticipates a turnout exceeding the 79.1 percent from four years ago. That means about 3.4 million votes will be tallied in Los Angeles County alone on Tuesday night.

"We are expecting there will likely be long lines at the polling places, especially when the polls first open and before they close at 8 p.m.," he said.

Logan said he is racing to process a backlog of 13,000 last-minute vote-by-mail applications and 55,000 voter registrations. He advised voters still holding their absentee ballots to turn them in on Election Day at their polling place, or at the registrar's headquarters in Norwalk.

To process last-minute registrations, Logan said his employees are working double shifts, the Daily News reported. As of Friday, about 1 million ballots by mail were requested by L.A. County voters, and more than 494,000 had returned them.

Statewide, a record 17.3 million voters are registered, up from 16.6 million in the 2004 presidential election, which saw a 76 percent turnout.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen said "voter interest in this historic election is enormous, and I expect to see a record of Californians cast ballots on Tuesday."

Nationwide, about 13 million people have already voted early and 9 million newly registration people are expected to vote in the historic election, placing additional strain on the nation's voting system.