Jack Seigal, the inspector of elections, ensures that Peggy Miller has signed her envelope before she drops off her mail-in ballot at the Rancho Murieta Voting Center on March 5.

RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Although Sacramento County switched to all mail-in ballots in 2017, the voter center in Rancho Murieta stayed busy during the March 5 Presidential Primary Election. The center was located inside the Rancho Murieta Community Services District (CSD) Building.

Most of the traffic came from residents simply dropping off their ballots, which still netted them “I Voted” stickers. However, 120 residents voted the old-fashioned way on election day. They either filled out a paper ballot at a voting booth or used a touch-screen machine.

One of them was Ashley Fields, who had to wait until her 7-year-old daughter Ava got out of school to cast her ballot. That’s because the youngster wanted to see her mother vote.

John Seigal was the elections inspector at the Rancho Murieta Voter Center. The center also was open three days before the election, March 2, 3, and 4, with three people voting on Saturday, three on Sunday, and four on Monday. “We were bored to death,” Seigal reported.

Election workers picked up one pink vat of the mail-in ballots that on each of the three days. Three vats were full of mail-in ballots on Election Day.

A major highlight on election day was the turnout of three first-time voters. “We make a big deal of it, and we allow the parents to take pictures,” Seigal said. “All of the clerks also pound their table to create a drum roll effect.”

Although the Sacramento County election results weren’t final as of the deadline of this story, the winners were evident.

Doris Matsui was being re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 58% of the vote compared to Tom Silva, with 31.8 %.

Heath Flora was re-elected for the District 9 State Assembly seat with 70.8% of the vote versus 26% for Tami Nobriga.

Rosario Rodriguez was winning the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors District 4 seat with 50.35% of the vote. Bret C. Daniels received 27.8 percent and Braden Murphy 21.6 percent. Rodriguez was endorsed by Supervisor Sue Frost, who chose not to run again.

County-wide, the voter turnout was 20.78%.  Of 868,750 registered voters, 180,496 cast their ballots.

 Assisted by her daughter Ava, Ashley Fields is one of 120 voters who chose to cast ballot in person in the March 5 primary election at the voting center in Rancho Murieta. In the foreground, Jackson and Lilly Fields stay busy coloring.