Alpine votes for Obama, McCain

In California's Feb. 5 primary election Alpine Democrats favored Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton 54 to 37 percent while the Republicans gave John McCain 43 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney's 25 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 11 percent.

The county's voting is by mail with drop boxes in Bear Valley and in the Indian colony in Woodfords, with the ballots counted Tuesday night in the Board of Supervisors' chamber in Markleeville. Upon the 8 p.m. deadline volunteers Gail Day, Jim Dunn, Jeanne Lear and Mary Rawson began checking the signature on each envelope, then removed the ballot and compared the person's name against the list of registered voters.

The turnout in the county was 61 percent

The box with the Indian colony ballots was lugged in by DeAnne Roberts, Washoe chairwoman and tribe representative at 8:35 p.m. And just before 10 p.m. sheriff's deputy Mike Helms arrived from Jackson with the Bear Valley ballots. Sheriff's deputy Jess Sanford had ferried the drop box from Bear Valley to Jackson.

Once the ballots for each of the five districts were checked County Clerk Barbara Howard shepherded them through the counting machine, Judy Molnar recorded the totals and distributed printouts to the small group of observers, including myself, Corrine Cole and Hal and Jane Starratt. Assistant County Clerk Sarah Simis helped with various tasks.

By 11:30 p.m. the work had been completed, and the volunteers and county officials were tired, yet they earned the citizens' gratitude for their essential service.