10:45 a.m.

Neighborhood polling places are not the only busy spots. The headquarters for the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters is hopping.

The elections HQ on 65th Street in South Sacramento has seen a steady stream of activity today. Not only are people entering the building to vote, they are also dropping off mail-in ballots in the parking lot.

Some are not even getting out of their cars:

"We have four people in our parking lot with blue ballot boxes so people don't even have to get out of their cars," said elections office spokesman Brad Buyse. "They are just dropping in their ballots."

9:47 a.m.

Reports from the polls:

• Voters in Tahoe Park were stopping by in good numbers. A total of 127 people had voted at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on 59th Street as of about 9:15 a.m.

• At the polling place in the meeting hall of River Park's Seventh-day Adventist Church, business at 9 a.m. on Election Day was steady.

Voters steadily occupied the six voting booths, and there was a consistent line of three or four people waiting their turn to vote. Just as consistently, another two or three people waited their turn at checking in and receiving their ballots.

• In East Sacramento, the equipment to scan ballots at David Lubin Elementary polling site was broken, so voters were putting ballots in a secured box instead.

Placer County is estimating a turnout of registered voters in the 80 percent range. In El Dorado County, the hope is for close to 85 percent. In Yolo County, about 78 percent is projected.

Sacramento County as of Friday had not projected turnout. But in the last presidential election, turnout was 79 percent.

• Very steady voting at Dewey Middle School Fair Oaks. The 98th voter came at 9:20 a.m.

- Kim Minugh, Anita Creamer, Kathy Morrison, Lisa Howard and Tory Van Oot

9:22 a.m.
At three Sacramento County polling places today you can vote and get a flu shot.

Flu vaccinations are being given at three polling stations: the Fruitridge Christian Church, 4445 Fruitridge Rd. from 9:30 a.m. to noon; the Pannell Community Center, 2450 Meadowview Rd. from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and the elections office at 7000 65th Parkway from noon to 5 p.m.

- Bill Lindelof

8:56 a.m.
Not that she's complaining, but Election Day means long hours for precinct inspector Dawn Sirstad.

Sirstad has worked at polling places on election days for 14 years. These days she is a precinct inspector at an Elk Grove polling place, working before the sun rises to long after sundown.

Her election duties actually begin before Election Day when picks up ballots, organizes her crew and sets up voting booths. She also brings in red, white and blue decorations to make the polling place inside a community room at Raley's look festive.

Election Day looks like this:

Alarm going off about 3 a.m.

At 5:30 a.m. pick up a polling place worker who was without reliable transportation.

At 6 a.m. pick up donated coffee from Starbucks.

At 6:05 more set-up of the polling place.

At 7 a.m. polling place opens.

She supervises the polling place all day.

After polls close at 8 p.m., she must drop off polling place materials between 10-11 p.m. with the county.

Then it's off to Applebee's for a light-night bite to eat.

"It's a long day," said Sirstad. In a couple of weeks she gets a report card in the mail, telling her how she and her crew did.

For all this she makes about $180.

- Bill Lindelof

7:48 a.m.
Not only can you get a free sticker for voting today at the neighborhood polling place, Starbucks nationwide is passing out free red, white and blue wristbands that say "Indivisible."

The busy, friendly baristas at the Starbucks at 5539 H St. today were offering the wristbands to any customer.

The patriotic freebie is being handed out on the one-year anniversary of the company's Create Jobs for USA initiative. Normally, the wristbands are given out for a donation of at least $5.

In a letter on the company website, Howard Schultz, Starbucks chief executive officer, said Create Jobs for USA has raised $15 million in donations:

"This money has been distributed to community lenders serving nearly all 50 states, and these lenders are leveraging that equity to support approximately $105 million in small and community business financing which will help to create or sustain approximately 5,000 jobs across the country."

- Bill Lindelof

7:33 a.m.

At one Raley's store in Elk Grove, the right to vote is meeting the right to strike.

For at least a half dozen years, a polling place has operated in a community room inside the Raley's at Elk Grove and Franklin boulevards.

On Election Day, voters usually walk through produce, past the pharmacy and right before the meat department go into a room where they exercised their right to vote.

This year, a strike by Raley's workers caused elections workers to fear that some voters might not want to enter the store with picket sign-holding workers outside. This morning voters were entering without any trouble.

- Bill Lindelof

7 a.m.

California polls opened at 7 a.m. and voters have until 8 p.m. to cast their ballots.

Precinct captains around the Sacramento region this morning have supervised the installation of voting stations this morning at fire stations, schools, senior centers and other impromptu polling places.

Of course, not everyone will be casting their ballots while standing in spindly-legged voting booths.

"There are likely going to be a huge numbers of vote-by-mail ballots being dropped off," today, said Brad Buyse, spokesman for the Sacramento County elections office.

In Sacramento County, he said, 698,899 citizens are registered to vote. Of that number, 419,000 requested vote-by-mail ballots.

"Of those, 45 percent have been turned in," he said. "So we still have a lot more vote-by-mail ballots to be turned in."

Officials say it is too late to mail those ballots in if you want them to be counted. At this point, all vote-by-mail ballots must be dropped off at either your county elections office or at any polling place today.

- Bill Lindelof

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