One Week Before California Recall Election Day, Turnout Numbers Strong

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - With one week until Election Day for the Gubernatorial Recall, Californians have already started casting their ballots with early voting.

At the Sacramento County Election Headquarters, one after another, people walked up, or drove up, and dropped their ballots into the ballot drop box.

"We're very anxious," Anne Anderson said. "We wanna know. Get the votes in early."

"Who's in charge really matters," Dennis Henderson said.

In Sacramento County, 30 percent of registered voters have already voted in the election. As of Tuesday, 142,020 registered Sacramento Democrats have cast their ballots. 66,584 registered Sacramento Republicans have cast their ballots. Republicans are expected to vote in person in greater numbers on Election Day.

The turnout numbers are similar across the state, according to political data incorporated's Paul Mitchell.

"Well definitely people are engaged," Mitchell said. "We're at 28 percent turnout already. I'll tell you a month-and-a-half ago there might have been some political pundits who said in a recall election in September, an off-numbered year, they might be expecting 35-40 percent turnout. There's no way this is only going to be 35-40 percent turnout."

The recall advertisements on both sides are now overwhelming airwaves. With Registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans 2-1 in California, the more people voting, the more likely a Newsom win.

Steve Maviglio was the spokesperson for the last governor to be recalled, Gray Davis.

"All you have to do is do the math," Maviglio said. "They [Newsom's campaign] did an amazing job of keeping every Democrat out of this race."

Maviglio credits the Newsom campaign for framing this as a Republican recall, with radio host Larry Elder now the leading challenger. With election day a week away, ballots are already filling up election drop boxes.

"We'll see how it turns out," Anderson said. "We'll see how it turns out."

Experts are seeing a new trend that more Republicans will likely be voting in person. We could see a surge in republican ballots come election day.