San Francisco: Many not waiting for Election Day to vote
SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - The sound of early voters' ballots whizzing through machines, filled San Francisco's Department of Elections Wednesday as workers handled boxes ballots on the second day of processing.
With thirteen days left until election day, elections officials say they already have seen record numbers of ballots coming in.
"The numbers of ballots going out is the highest we've ever issued. We have got the most voters ever in San Francisco who are registered to vote. We have got the most voters who have come at this point in the cycle to city hall to cast ballots," said .John Arntz, the Director of San Francisco's Department of Elections.
Arntz says 325,000 or 63 percent of San Francisco's registered voters have requested vote-by-mail ballots. As of Wednesday about 60,000 had been turned in.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have shifted their focus to getting voters to the polls.
Trump campaigned in Charlotte, North Carolina hoping to sway swing voters.
"Our opponent represents the rigged system and the failed thinking of yesterday," said Donald Trump.
Trump also appeared in Washington D.C. at a ribbon-cutting for his new hotel. He blasted Clinton for supporting the Affordable Care Act which the Obama administration said Wednesday could see health insurance premiums rise an average of 25 percent next year.
Clinton campaigned in Florida, also taking time to help other Democrats fighting to gain control of Congress.
Florida's battleground race is tight. A new Bloomberg poll shows Trump ahead by two points, while a Florida Atlantic University poll shows Clinton up by three points.
"With 13 days left to go in this election, we can't stop for a minute, nooooooo complacency," said Hillary Clinton.
There was no complacency, but instead, plenty of cupcakes as Clinton campaign volunteers celebrated Hillary's birthday Wednesday by opening a new office and national call center in Oakland. The call center staff plan to keep it open 12-15 hours every day calling voters in battleground states from now until November 8th.
"While there are organizers in brick and mortar field offices in every battleground state, they also have their own goals and expectations in terms of knocking on doors and getting volunteer recruitment so we're here to fill that gap," said Katie Hooper, the Oakland office location director.
Trump's California campaign staff say they have three Bay Area call centers in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Novato. Volunteers for Trump at those sites will be calling voters nationwide through Election Day.
Arntz says there have been no problems, except a slight delay in processing because San Francisco's five-page ballot is so thick, if voters fold the pages together, it will not fit through the machines. Instead, he says voters should fold each page separately and stack them together in the envelope.
He also emphasizes that while the early ballots are coming in, no one is able to see the results until the data is tallied on Election Day.