Coronado and the County Come Out to Vote

More than 1,400 polling places opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday for a primary election in which voters in the region will cast ballots for San Diego's mayor, while Coronado looks at statewide ballot measures, and legislative and congressional candidates.

Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler said early indications point to a low turnout—in the neighborhood of 40 percent.

Polls will be open until 8 p.m., and the first batch of results—from the early voters and mail-in ballots—is expected to be released soon after, according to Seiler. She said the first results from precincts should be available by 10 p.m.

Workers at one of Coronado's nine polling stations said business was steady through most of the day, though they said at times there was an hour when nobody came in to vote.

Donald Fink, a veteran of six elections, Marilyn Tipton, Jen Sparkman and Corina Sutherland staffed the poll at the school district's .

Susan Patterson and her husband Ed dropped by late in the afternoon Tuesday to hand over their absentee ballots. They are regular voters, but admitted there was no issue in the primary election they were particiularly passionate about.

They are far more excited about the November election, when they want to cast their ballots for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. 

“We consistently vote and it's really important,” she said.

Here's details of one of Coronado's races, to see who will face off in November to represent the community in Congress. The community is also voting for state measures and representatives in the state Assembly.

52nd Congressional District

California's new "top-two" primary system and redistricting will add some twists to San Diego's congressional and legislative races in today's election.

The changes could be felt most by Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, who will try to fend off two strong Democratic challengers in the 52nd District, which is mostly new territory for the incumbent.

The fact that his challengers—port Commissioner and former San Diego Councilman Scott Peters and ex-Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego -- are both Democrats will no longer matter under the new primary rules. If they collect more votes than Bilbray, he will lose his seat and Peters and Saldana will compete against each other in the November general election.

Under the old rules, the candidates would run in intra-party primaries, with the winners facing each other in the general election.

Bilbray, long a Democratic target, will have the challenge of votes possibly being siphoned off by four other Republicans in the race. Only one other declared Democrat might skim votes from Peters or Saldana.

A wildcard could be former Santee Mayor Jack Doyle, a Coronado resident who is in the primary as an independent.

The district Bilbray will represent was shifted from being oriented along the North County coastline toward inland areas as far east as Rancho Bernardo Poway. District boundaries are adjusted every 10 years, according to fresh U.S. census data.

-City News Service