We’re in the final hours of Election Day—did you vote?

Erik Chalhoub here. Did you cast your vote today at the ballots, or slip it into a dropbox or your mailbox sometime since Oct. 7? If you haven’t, there’s still time to vote in-person—polling places close tonight at 8pm.

If you don’t plan on voting at all, I’m curious to know why.

For me, I dropped off my ballot in mid-October, easily the earliest I’ve ever voted.

Now, we wait for the votes to be counted and the results to roll out. As agonizing as it may be, democracy hinges on making sure every vote is counted—and it takes time.

On the national front, we likely won’t know tonight who is coming out on top of the most nail-biting race of them all: the president.

While I didn’t fully understand it at the time, even as an 11-year-old in 2000 I was desperate to know who our next president would be, and I wondered how long it would take to recount the votes in Florida. The 2020 presidential election, although decided much quicker than 2000 even though it was days later, was just as excruciating.

National reports say the election will be called sooner this year, but we’ll wait and see.

Waiting is the name of the game on Election Day. Tonight, Weekly staffers will spread out across Monterey County, popping in on candidates’ parties as everyone waits to see which way the votes fall.

According to the Monterey County Elections Department, the first results, which include vote-by-mail ballots, will be released shortly after 8pm tonight. The next report is slated for around 10pm.

Reports after Election Day will be released on Friday, then on Wednesdays and Fridays until all ballots are counted.

Registrar of Voters Gina Martinez says coming into Election Day, more than 80,000 ballots—vote-by-mail and early in-person voting—had been returned since voting began on Oct. 7. That’s close to 40 percent of the county’s 214,883 registered voters.

“This is absolutely on par for a presidential general election,” she says. “We’ve had a steady flow of voters since 7am. Yesterday we had voters in our office all day, and we had a line moving continually.

“People are showing up ready to vote.”

There’s still a few hours left to vote—Martinez says people can drop off their ballots at a drop box or in-person voting center. Those who want to vote in-person are asked to bring their vote-by-mail ballot. But it’s not a requirement—even if you misplaced a vote-by-mail ballot or never received one, or would like to register to cast a provisional ballot then and there, poll workers will assist you.

We’ll be working throughout the night to bring you election results and color from the parties. Check out montereycountynow.com, and follow the Weekly on X, Facebook and Instagram for the latest.

Newsletter

The Big Day is here, and there’s still time to vote.