Throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, residents flocked to one of 20 voting locations Tuesday, marching into their local polling places in a near-constant stream.
This year, California’s primary ballot has several key seats in play, but perhaps none more so than the state’s governorship after Gov. Gavin Newsom termed out this year. That seat alone motivated several Santa Clarita voters, according to those who spoke to The Signal in Newhall and Castaic.
Voters going into the polling booth skewed older in the mid-afternoon, when attendance had slowed to a trickle, after polling locations like Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Newhall experienced a lunchtime rush.
Many walked with excited confidence on their way to the voting machines — voters who spoke to The Signal after casting their ballots said they’d felt good about fulfilling their civic duty.
Many also said they were motivated by one major factor in this year’s primary: changing California.
“We just want to see major changes in California,” said Santa Clarita Valley resident John Cavanagh on the way out of Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s polling center. “It’s a beautiful state to live in, and if we were younger, we’d be adios.”
Mark Delapna, a nurse, also said he was looking for change, and said that voting was essential to being a part of it.
“We have to do our part, so if you want something changed, it’s better that we … cast our vote,” Delapna said.
Issues most voters said they’d like to see addressed in the state typically converged on the same major areas of contention.
Sandy Ficciotto, now retired after working as a nurse for the past 36 years, said the state problems that concerned her most were well-known to most: gas prices, cost-of-living expenses, and perpetual wildfires.
“Making things better for us in California (is important,)” Ficciotto said, stepping out of the Ryan Clinkunbroomer Sports Complex polling center in Castaic. “Things are crazy here, too expensive. I have property, and everything is very high. Gas … electric, food, and then the fires.”
But even for voters who didn’t have a particular cause on top of mind Tuesday, voting for a new governor felt particularly important.
“The only thing that really mattered to me was the governor,” said Heather Otzen, a cosmetologist, coming out of the Clinkunbroomer Sports Complex. Otzen added that if there was anything she wanted to see changed locally with her vote, it would be to get “L.A. County back on track.”
Angie Hererra, a Castaic teacher, said voting for the new governor was “the No. 1 reason” she was at the polls Tuesday, besides being motivated by a broad range of issues.
“Just what’s going on in this world (motivated me),” Hererra said. “So it’s important that we vote to help change things, make them better.”
As for what she hoped would change with her vote, Hererra didn’t specify — it was the whole gamut.
“Just the way things are running all from A to Z, to be honest,” Herrera said.
