MB Voters Head to the Polls

Voters began heading into the polls at 7 a.m. to cast their votes in what Manhattan Beach resident Denise Matlack called the most important election of her adult life.

"I will be up until the bitter end," she said of wanting to see the results in countless races and propositions. "I have been watching it [election coverage] since early this morning and I will be up until the bitter end."

Areta Pearson said she was very excited about voting.

Manhattan Beach Patch talked with the two voters as they walked away from their polling location, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship.

MB Patch also met Connie Werle and Petra Williams as they walked down First Street after casting their votes around the time their neighbor Bill Bloomfield did. The two women expressed their support of Bloomfield, who is running for congress against Congressman Henry Waxman.

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Bloomfield and his wife Susan stepped into their polling place at a residence around 11 a.m. As he left, an arriving male voter greeted Bloomfield, shook his hand and wished him well.

Manhattan Beach has 24,769 registered voters, with 8,793 of those taking out absentee ballots.

As of 3 p.m., Dean Logan with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, reported that 40.89 percent of the county's voters has voted so far, citing a sampling of precincts throughout the county.

The California polling group Field Poll is estimating that there will be one million fewer ballots cast today than on Election Day 2008.  

The pollsters are projecting that 12.75 million Californians will show up to vote, down from 13.74 million in 2008, a turnout of 69.9 percent of registered voters.

The group also suggests that for the first time ever in California there will be more ballots cast by mail - they note that California voting officials report distribution of 9.1 million vote-by-mail ballots and project that 6.5 million voters will mail it in.

For more on their estimates, check out their website.

Dan Abendschein and Sandra Oshiro contributed to this report.

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