Election Day 2024 started early Tuesday with winds of change beckoning, steady streams of election voters streaming into polling places, and an urgency for individuals to express the need for each of their voices to be heard.
It also came with a side dish of realism that the consequences from the outcomes of the Presidential election between former President Donald. J. Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris could be enormous for everyone, as could the consequences for Californians from decisions on that ballot.
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“The Republic is strong,” Navy veteran Bob Johnson, of Lafayette, said outside the city’s Veteran Memorial Building, where he and others voted. “It has endured more than 200 years for a reason, with the checks and balances we’ve had. And I believe that will continue.
“At the same time, it’s kind of like a fork in the road right now. Do we want to come together. Do we want to continue to be partisan? It’s sort of, ‘What road do you want to take, America?’ ”
In Contra Costa County, early morning voters at the Memorial Building and Bay Church in Concord called for more unity and an end to divisiveness and chaos. They said that issue was the one that most concerned them, and was the reason they were so eager to vote.
Just as important to Bay Area voters seemed to be a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her body. East San Jose resident Vivian Tran, a cardiac ultrasound student at the Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts, said as she voted at the PayPal Town Hall in San Jose that she always has felt it normal for women to have full reproductive rights and they never should be taken away from her.
“When it was kind of raising the question when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, well, what do you guys mean? Like what do you mean?” Tran said. “We’ve had these rights since the day I was born, so are we getting them taken away?”
Voters also said they were keeping a close eye on Proposition 36, which proposes to increase the prosecutions of certain drug and theft crimes, and make sentences more severe.
“People should be getting in way more trouble for ripping off stores and store owners that way,” said Dwayne Bonilla, of Martinez. “This whole business of the smash-and-grabs has got to stop.”
The election in the Bay Area unfolded before the backdrop of possible power shutdowns from PG&E because of a red flag warning for fire danger. Oakland Fire spokesperson Michael Hunt said a polling location in Joaquin Miller Park was shut down because of safety concerns but did not say to where voters were redirected. He did not say if it was related to the public safety power shutdown.
Voting polls were set to remain open until 8 p.m. Anyone in line at a ballot place before 8 p.m. is legally allowed to vote.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this story.
This is a developing report. Please check back for updates.