My Day as a Poll Worker. Day One of Early Voting In Deep Blue CA

I live in the SF Bay Area, in a pretty reliably blue district.   For the past several cycles, my wife and I have served as poll workers,  There are two types of early voting in CA.  11 day early voting stations, a few, and four day voting stations, A bunch.  We work four day polling stations

In all our previous cycles, day one of 4 day voting was empty. Maybe a dozen people over the whole day.   Days 2 and three were similar, and then election day itself was busy from open to close.  

So imagine how surprised we were when by the time we opened (right on time) there was already a line of people waiting to vote.  We had a steady stream of  customers through the day, at times with all 6 touch screens and several print ballot booths occupied.  By the end of the day several hundred people had voted.  We were working with an experienced staff, and none of us had ever seen anything like this.  

The other thing that really stood out to me was the number of first time voters,   I would estimate about a dozen voters proudly told us that this was the first time they ever voted.  Many had recently turned 18, some coming in with proud parents,  and several were immigrants. 

Honestly,  I was prepared for election day to be nuts, but not today.  I am fascinated to see what happens tomorrow.