Voters were out in big numbers Tuesday, suggesting a huge local turnout

The line of Election Day voters on Tuesday wound around and through the courtyard behind Kern County Elections in downtown Bakersfield.

It seemed local residents wanted to vote badly enough that they were willing to stand in the lengthy line of more than 100 voters for 30 to 45 minutes in order to have their votes recorded.

"We're anticipating about an 80% turnout this year, which is very high," said Adam Clark, public information officer for Kern County Elections.

Indeed, 80% would be significantly higher than the turnout in the 2020 general election, which drew about 72% of Kern County's registered voters.

On Friday alone, Elections received about 140,000 mail-in ballots, Clark said.

"It's picking up very fast."

One of those waiting in line to vote was Rajeer Khosa, 20, a student at Cal State Bakersfield.

"I had a mail-in ballot, but I lost it," Khosa said. "I had to come in person."

Born and raised in Bakersfield, Khosa was determined to vote in the election, even though he had a midterm hanging over his head scheduled later Tuesday afternoon.

"Voting for the first time, it's an experience," he said. "I had to do my own research and find out from credible sources ... not just get information from one source, but get information from several sources."

He doesn't consider himself a "news person" or a "political person," but Khosa said he realizes there's a lot at stake, and he had to do some homework, on both national and local elections, before casting his votes.

Noa Sloan, 21, just moved back to Bakersfield from southern Tennessee, and she said she's glad to be home.

She, too, feels it's her civic duty to vote, but why stand in line on the last day?

"My cat ate my election ballot," she said, laughing.

Everything that's been happening has her nervous and a little scared about election violence.

"The insurrection (at the Capitol), that was frightening," she said, "and a little embarrassing to be honest.

"I'm incredibly concerned," she said. "This is a highly tumultuous, high-stakes election."

As the line moved steadily, Elections employees in orange jackets stood ready to answer questions, including letting voters know where their neighborhood polling places are located.

"I thought I had to reregister every year, so i wasn't going to come to vote," said Bakersfield resident Aida Semu. "But my neighbor said, 'You can still come to vote.'"

What is it about voting that attracts Americans to the polls?

"I have no right to complain about what the politicians are doing if I don't vote," Semu said. It was a refrain repeated by several voters.

Out on the curb on N Street, curbside ballot drop-offs were going brisk and nonstop on Election Day.

And not far away at the Weill Institute on 21st Street, more modest numbers of voters were coming and going.

"I think it's a good thing," 29-year-old Bakersfield resident Juan Rodelas said of the act of voting.

"For one thing, it's important. I think we all should all do our civic duty."

As he gets older, Rodelas said, he feels he has more of a stake in what's happening locally and across the country.

Right or wrong, it's important to vote.

"We can't all be right," he said.