photo credit: Courtesy of Sonoma County
Deva Marie Proto. 

The 2024 general election is definitively behind us; Sonoma County’s registrar of voters certified the election results on Dec. 3. 

Unlike in past elections, the local voter turnout for this one was on the low end.

"We had an 83% turnout…total," said Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Deva Marie Proto.

Proto said while, in the weeks prior to the election, she anticipated more local voters to participation, in the end, every election is different.

"Turnout changes in every election based on how people feel about the people, how people are feeling about different issues that are important to them. And, you know, we see that on a local level," Proto said.

According to the final count, all the school bonds passed except for two, like Windsor’s. Measure I, meant to pay for child care and children’s health, passed countywide with 63% of the vote. Measure J yes votes didn’t quite reach 15%l 85.03% of voters said no.

Here are some more numbers: nearly 180,000 people in Sonoma County voted for the Harris/Walz ticket. Over 63,000 voted for Trump and Vance. 

But of all the ballots sent to Sonoma County voters, over 54,000 registered voters did not send a ballot back, sitting this election out. 

"So our elections here in Sonoma County, our turnout has ranged from 75% to over 93%. And that is just the nature of the job. People choose in this country if they want to vote or not, and some exercise the right not to vote," Proto said.