Sacramento voters apprehensive on issues as they drop off ballots in the 2026 primary
As Sacramento prepared for Election Day, voters had already begun Monday to return ballots at early voting and vote-by-mail ballot drop-off locations, such as the California Museum in downtown Sacramento.
“We already had a full pink bag of drop-offs, and we’re on our second bag today of people dropping off which is new,” said Tressa Tabares, the inspector at the California Museum vote center.
Tabares has worked at vote centers since they replaced traditional polling precincts in 2018 and said that turnout had been slow until Monday, which is the usual pattern for the day before Election Day.
“It’s a long ballot for some,” said Tabares.
Milling in and out of the museum’s glass doors to drop off pink envelopes, voters made their decisions with varying degrees of confidence, and felt differently about the key issues.
Magda Loczi, who moved to Sacramento less than a month ago, said she felt confident in her ballot choices despite mentioning concerns about trust in the election.
“There’s a lot of questions about the efficacy of voting right now, so I am very deliberately watching what’s happening,” she said. “Even if we have distrust, we have to use our voices.” Loczi ultimately ended up voting for Katie Porter in the governor’s race.
Other voters were also nervous, and made compromises in their choices. Peter Saucerman, a retired architect who has lived in Sacramento for over 30 years, said he felt “a fair amount of anxiety” about the election. “I thought it was pretty embarrassing that we have 50 candidates for governor, most of whom are an absolute joke,” he said.
He ended up voting for Tom Steyer.
“Not a big fan of billionaires,” Saucerman said. “But in my research, what he’s done to support environmental issues, and his stance on taxing people like himself, only he and Warren Buffet are the only billionaires I know who say, ‘tax me, tax me.’”
To Dick Nordlund, who identified himself as a Republican, there was a lack of diversity in stances on key issues. “It looked like a lot of them were of the same stripe for some of the secondary offices,” he said.
In voting for Steve Hilton, he said economics and concerns about “high unemployment, lots of industry leaving here, enormous public expenses” were factors that influenced his decision. California’s unemployment rate is 5.3% compared to the national 4.3% unemployment rate as of April.
The drama around character integrity this election cycle has also put off some voters.
“We’ve sort of been sucker-punched by so many character failings,” said Don Wilcox, a lobbyist for the carpenter’s union who identifies as a Democrat. “Not only nationally,” he continued, “but here locally, statewise, and I think it’s really important that somebody with a good character leads us.”
Despite voters’ trepidation around the election and the number of names on the ballot, Tabares was motivated.
“The fact that people are willing to put in the time and energy and making some decisions is really encouraging,” she said.
To Leilani Lim, a scheduler for the California State Senate, the California primaries are especially important. When asked what issues were most important to her, she emphasized “finding somebody that’ll represent us properly, and fight a good fight, because California has to.”
Lim voted for Xavier Becerra.
“I consider California a leading state, a leader state,” she said. “I know not everybody looks at us that way.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Sacramento voters apprehensive on issues as they drop off ballots in the 2026 primary."
