Jeremy T. Ringfield's Blog, page 329

News media don’t run elections. Why do they call the winners?

By ROBERT YOON

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s election night, the polls have closed and chances are you’re waiting on The Associated Press or one of the major television networks to say who will be the next president. But why does the news media play that role in the first place? Shouldn’t that be the government’s job?

State and local governments do run and administer American elections, including the race for president. They are responsible for counting the votes and maintaining the official record of who won and by how much.

But the official process — from poll close to final certification — can take the states anywhere from several days to more than a month. In the race for the White House, it’s not until early January that the formal process of picking the president via the Electoral College is complete. No federal agency or election commission provides updates to the public in the meantime about what’s happening with their votes.

“That’s a gap in the Constitution left by the founders that AP stepped in to fill just two years after our company was founded,” said David Scott, a vice president at AP who oversees the news agency’s election operations. “It was essential then, as it is today, that Americans have an independent, non-partisan source for the whole picture of the election — most critically of the very vital news of who has won the election.”

A brief history of race calls

The AP was formed in 1846 as a newspaper cooperative. It tabulated election results for the first time two years later, when Zachary Taylor won the presidential election as a member of the Whig Party. The effort to gather the results from jurisdictions across the still-young nation relied on the telegraph, lasted 72 hours and had a then-exorbitant cost of $1,000.

In 1916, the first election broadcast aired over a small network of ham radios, according to a history written by the late CBS News Political Director Martin Plissner. The announcer closed the program by incorrectly declaring that Republican Charles Evans Hughes had won the presidency over Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The AP called the race for Wilson two days later once it was able to report results from California.

By the early 1960s, the AP and the three broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — were each conducting independent vote counts. They agreed to pool their resources in the 1964 election to compile the vote count for key races, an arrangement that would last in some form for more than 50 years and eventually expand to include exit polling of Election Day voters.

After the 2016 election, the AP left the network pool to continue its independent vote count operation and launch the AP VoteCast survey of the American electorate as an alternative to the network’s exit polls. The networks, now including CNN, remain with the pool today and receive their vote count and exit poll data from Edison Research. Fox News subscribes to AP’s vote count, as do thousands of news organizations across the United States and around the world, and partners with the AP to conduct the VoteCast survey.

Counting the vote

In counting the vote, the AP isn’t actually tabulating the results of individual voters’ actual ballots. That work is performed by the local government election officials who administer elections in the United States.

Outside of setting some broad guidelines, the Constitution leaves the details of actually running elections to the states, which means there are 51 (don’t forget the District of Columbia) different sets of rules on how to run elections.

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Some of those rules are more voter-friendly than others.

In New Hampshire, election results could be officially certified a few days after Election Day. In California, the tabulation process takes several weeks and final election results are not made available until early December. The rest of the states fall somewhere in between.

In reporting their results, some jurisdictions use a format that makes it difficult to immediately determine who won, such as not including percentages with the raw vote totals or displaying candidate vote totals for the same contest across multiple pages of a scanned PDF document. Most election officials post unofficial results for their county or town online on election night; a handful don’t release even initial results until later.

The AP’s vote count, Scott said, is an effort to make sense of all that information. “What we’re doing is stitching all of vote totals together from thousands of counties and towns nationwide into a single, standardized format, so that voters have access to the overall vote count for a race,” he said.

Declaring election winners

The presidential election has more moving parts than any other contest on the ballot, including the complexities of the Electoral College. The Constitution directs each state to determine its own electors and send the results of their votes for president to the National Archives and to Congress, to be tallied a few weeks after Election Day.

In modern elections, with states having directed electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, voters know who has won the White House well before the formalities of the Electoral College play out through the “race calls” made by the AP and the networks. They’re not official government decrees, but they provide the country with a timely and independent assessment of the state of a race.

“The AP’s standard is to call a race whenever we are 100% certain there is no path for the trailing candidate to overtake the leading candidate,” said Anna Johnson, the news agency’s Washington bureau chief. “The AP uses that same standard for all race calls from the presidency all the way down the ballot. Independent and timely race calls by the AP and other media outlets help ensure voters understand not just who won a race, but how they won the race.”

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Horoscopes Oct. 13, 2024: Jerry Rice, establish your endgame

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Sacha Baron Cohen, 53; Kate Walsh, 57; Jerry Rice, 62; Marie Osmond, 65.

Happy Birthday: Use intellect and timing to stay ahead of the game and apply your energy to achieve positive gains. Letting what’s happening around you stir up negative energy or lead you down the wrong path wastes time. Set your priorities and establish your endgame prior to making a move. Happiness and satisfaction will be yours if you are clever, articulate and passionate in the process. Your numbers are 5, 13, 21, 24, 33, 39, 41.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Get your priorities straight before you engage in domestic issues. Nurture meaningful relationships. Push anger and frustration aside and try to see all sides of a situation. Listen carefully and take others’ concerns seriously. Compassion and understanding will be the vehicle to victory. Choose love over discord. 3 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Have a plan, pace yourself and implement the changes that will make your life easier. Concentrate on relationships, home and family, and explore your options. Articulate your concerns with postive emotion, not anger, and you’ll drum up support and find a passage to personal growth and satisfaction. 4 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Don’t be fooled by hype, scammers or someone looking for a handout. Take matters into your own hands and finish what you start. Counting on someone else to do things for you won’t bode well when you are stuck with the fallout. Take control and make things happen. 2 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Take the road that excites you. Tune into your creative outlets, and the outcome will impact who you are and what you do next. A passionate encounter will change your perspective on life, love, personal growth and prospects. Watch, develop, market and promote yourself and your attributes. 5 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Stick close to home and give yourself time to think matters through to avoid a poor choice that can cost you emotionally or financially. Dig deep, ask experts and let your intelligence take precedence over feelings. A change of heart will evolve if you sit back and observe. 3 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Change becomes you as you embrace new beginnings. Don’t hold back; let your actions lead the way. Travel, communicate and make things happen. Be the master of your universe, believe in yourself, be positive, and end old conditions, while replacing them with hope and vitality. 3 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Direct your energy into something worthwhile. A high-energy approach to achieving your goal will win support and a pat on the back for effort. Learn and share your findings, but don’t mix business with pleasure. It’s best to keep your emotions to yourself and your efforts realistic. 5 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Stifle your feelings and avoid getting into a nasty emotional argument with someone you love. Focus on the physical, not the emotional, and embrace the projects you want to complete. Attend a reunion, family gathering or event that stirs your imagination and inspires you to be creative. 2 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Say what’s on your mind, clear the air and move on to what’s important to you. Getting rid of deadweight and dealing with unsatisfactory situations will lighten your burden and make room for investing more time in yourself and what brings you joy. Change begins with you. 4 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’ve got what it takes to get things done to your specifications. Don’t waste time deliberating with someone over things that don’t matter to you. Let go of whatever stands between you and your heart’s desire. Be true to yourself, and everything will fall into place. 3 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Make up your mind and get moving. Initiate opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to you. If you don’t go after your goals, you have no one to blame but yourself. The first step is the hardest, but after that, the sky’s the limit. 3 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Simplify your life. Put an end to indulgent behavior, say no to temptation and maximize your effort to strive for a healthy lifestyle that encourages you to look and feel your best. A minimalist attitude will help you follow through with decluttering, stabilization and security. 3 stars

Birthday Baby: You are insightful, passionate and emotional. You are inquiring and responsive.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

Visit Eugenialast.com, or join Eugenia on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn.

Want a link to your daily horoscope delivered directly to your inbox each weekday morning? Sign up for our free Coffee Break newsletter at mercurynews.com/newsletters or eastbaytimes.com/newsletters. 

College football: MPC’s defense shuts down San Jose to go to 5-0

SAN JOSE — Ronnie Palmer thought about it for a brief moment, paused and offered a unique answer to being undefeated at the mid-point of the football season.

“I don’t know how I feel about it because there is still a lot to improve upon,” the Monterey Peninsula College coach said. “It’s new ground being 5-0. I don’t like being comfortable.”

Uncharted territory did create a nice bus ride home Saturday as the Lobos began their quest for a fourth straight American Golden Coast Conference title after a 23-10 win at San Jose City College.

While MPC can’t seem to get a sniff in the latest JC Athletic Bureau State Top 25 poll, it is now one of just five teams in the state that is still undefeated.

“I like pressure,” said Palmer, a former linebacker at Arizona. “I’m going to put pressure on our guys to compete at a high level. We will enjoy tonight, wake up and go to church and start figuring out how to protect our house next week.”

The Lobos will host West Hills next Saturday — the only team that has beaten Palmer in conference play since his arrival — when it scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull out a 21-17 win at MPC.

“I remember the losses more than the wins,” Palmer said.

The Lobos are 16-1 in conference play since Palmer took the reins four years ago, stretching its winning streak over San Jose to eight.

“That’s a good team we faced,” Palmer said. “Usually, we’re meeting at the end of the year with something at stake. They made us adjust our game plan tonight.”

After struggling in the first half of their first two road games this fall, the Lobos defense set the tone in the first quarter when Hollister product Jayde Freidt returned a pick six to give them a 6-0 lead.

“We sort of got off to a decent start,” Palmer said. “We still punted on our first drive. San Jose gave us some matchup problems. We didn’t have as many creases in the run game. We had to adjust.”

In fact, at one point, the Lobos were down 7-6 before running off the games next 17 points behind a tenacious defense and the arm of quarterback Eric Gibson.

The LSU transfer hooked up with tight end Jesus Maciel on a touchdown in which the Alisal graduate carried two tacklers into the end zone, then found Division I prospect Devin Ellison on a 78-yard scoring strike.

“Looking at the Siskiyous film, we didn’t come out the way we wanted last week,” Palmer said. “I can make excuses. But there are just excuses. The 1-0 mentality is plan, practice and prepare. That is what this past week was about.”

The Jaguars came into the game 3-1, with their only setback coming from Redwoods, who MPC beat for the first time in three years in the regular season three weeks ago.

“It was important to stop their all-conference running back,” Palmer said. “We needed to put them in more lower percentage passing downs. We had an aggressive game plan.”

Palmer was speaking about the Jaguars tailback Jesse R Lajes, who was held to 66 yards a week after rushing for 117 yards in a win over Cabrillo.

“A lot of guys were in new positions, partly due to injuries,” Palmer said. “And we got some guys back. Everyone that traveled, found some action. Our guys were excited.”

Determined not to let the states leading rusher in Kieryus Boone beat them on the ground, San Jose stacked the box, almost daring the Lobos to throw the ball.

Gibson took it to heart, throwing for 230 yards for MPC. Boone, who came into the game averaging a state leading 155.5 yards a game, was held to a season low 56 yards on 14 carries.

Nick Tsaboukso had a big night on defense for MPC with a pair of interceptions, while Roger Guillory added a pick. Jkai Thomas led the team in tackles with nine, while Kefa Pereira added eight tackles and a sack.

Hartnell 36, Yuba 13: There were signs over the course of the last two weeks that the Panthers were close to turning a corner in an injury plagued start to the campaign.

Holding a lead in their last two games, finishing became the challenge for a roster littered with 40 plus freshman getting acclimated to college football.

“We saw the steps every week,” Hartnell coach Ruben Lerma said. “There aren’t too many moral victories. We reminded them each week we’re getting better, no matter what the scoreboard says.”

The growing pains are still there. Yet, for one game, the Panthers are boarding a bus in a celebratory mood after snapping a seven-game losing streak that dated back to last season with a win at Yuba.

“We needed to learn to play for each other,” Lerma said. “It is a team full of rivals from other high schools. It’s a new system, there’s the speed of the game. It’s part of the process.”

Hartnell (1-4) was also in the inevitable position of replacing arguably one of the top players in the conference two quarters into the year when quarterback Adam Shaffer suffered a knee injury.

Turning to Carlos Galvez after Dominic Chavez went out with an injury, the former Hollister signal caller looked sharp, tossing three touchdown passes, two to Salinas High graduate Isaiah Durate.

“He’s still learning,” Lerma said. “But he came in and gave us a spark. As the game went on, we decided to stay with the hot hand. The good news is Dominic was fine. It enabled us to put him back at the position he came here to play as a receiver.”

Starring at a seven-point deficit to open the game, the Panthers ran off 36 straight points, using a pick six from Elijah Perkins to put the game out of reach late in the third quarter.

For Hartnell, it’s the second pick six its defense has recorded in as many games, as Jacob Peinado produced a touchdown off a pick last week in a loss to Gavilan.

“Special teams were also big for us tonight,” said Lerma whose Panthers will travel to Merced next Saturday. “The offense came alive. Now lets keep it rolling.”

Galvez also connected with Marina produce JJ Willis on a 22-yard scoring toss, while North Salinas product Justin Pascone got the scoring started with a 9-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

“We were a tenacious group on the defensive side,” Lerma said. “We were all over the ball. A lot of guys made plays. The defense has been carrying this year. Now the offense is playing like we envisioned.”

Local football standings: PCAL football

Pacific Coast Athletic League

Gabilan Division

Salinas (5-1), 3-0

Soquel (4-2), 3-0

Monterey (3-3), 2-1

Hollister (4-2), 1-1

Aptos (4-3), 1-2

Alvarez (2-4), 0-2

Palma (3-4), 0-3

Thursday’s game

Soquel 28, Hollister 10

Friday’s games

Salinas 28, Monterey 21

Aptos 34, Palma 31

Bye: Alvarez:

Mission Division North

North County (4-2), 2-0

St. Francis (5-1), 2-0

Alisal (2-4), 1-1

Monte Vista (3-4), 1-2

Scotts Valley (2-5), 1-2

Seaside (1-5), 1-2

Watsonville (3-4), 1-2

Friday’s games

Seaside 26, Watsonville 17

North County 27, Alisal 21

Monte Vista 25, Scotts Valley 23

Bye: St. Francis

Mission Division South

North Salinas (5-2), 3-0

Carmel (6-0), 2-0

Pacific Grove (5-2), 2-1

Soledad (3-3), 1-1

King City (3-4), 1-2

Rancho San Juan (0-6), 0-2

Greenfield (2-5), 0-3

Friday’s games

North Salinas 30, Pacific Grove 27

Soledad 48, Rancho San Juan 0

King City 21, Greenfield 14

Bye: Carmel

Santa Lucia Division

Pajaro Valley (4-3), 3-0

Stevenson (5-2), 3-0

San Lorenzo Valley (6-0), 2-0

Gonzales (3-3), 1-1

Marina (1-5), 0-2

Harbor (1-5), 0-3

Santa Cruz (0-7), 0-3

Saturday’s games

Pajaro Valley 49, Harbor 0

San Lorenzo Valley 48, Marina 7

Stevenson 59, Santa Cruz 14

Bye: Gonzales

High School football: Mink accounts for six touchdowns in Stevenson’s win over Santa Cruz

PEBBLE BEACH — There are objectives moving forward that go beyond this season for Stevenson. Of course, reaching those goals starts with meeting expectations in the present.

“What I’ve been talking about is building and sustaining something that allows us to plan,” Stevenson coach Kyle Cassamas said. “Our numbers are allowing us to play at this level. The goal is to get to the next level — perhaps a higher division.”

What has been consistent over the last five years is the Pirates in the hunt for a Santa Lucia Division title, as once again they are going into their final three games of the season undefeated in league play after Saturday’s 59-14 win over Santa Cruz.

Stevenson, who won the title in 2022, is one of three teams still undefeated in league, joining Pajaro Valley and San Lorenzo Valley, who is 6-0 on the season.

“Things will start to shake out,” Cassamas said. “Our concern right now is Pajaro Valley. We’re not looking past anyone. We are far from completing the mission.”

The mission Saturday was to play four quarters of football. While the Pirates (4-2) put up a season high 59 points, Cassamas still believes the best version of his team has yet to show up.

“Last week I asked the kids if they felt we had played a complete game,” Cassamas said. “The answer was ‘No’. We knew this was something we could improve upon. We wanted to play our best version of football, bring some fun back with it.”

With his core at the skilled positions fully intact, quarterback Fin Mink took advantage of his weapons, throwing for 346 yards and five touchdowns, while rushing for 85 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown run.

Mink found Derek Diniz for two touchdowns on 85 receiving yards. He also connected with Grady Roth six times for 80 yards and a touchdown, Flint Dickson three times for 85 yards and a score, and Caden Olson on a 32-yard touchdown pass.

“We see how the schedule is shaking out,” Cassamas said. “We moved some people around in different places today. We got a chance to prepare for the future.”

Tono Borgamini provided 61 rushing yards and a touchdown, while Tommy Dayton added a touchdown run, while finishing with 15 tackles on defense.

“Seeing our depth take shape with the injuries we dealt with earlier in the season, we know we can move people around the field and feel good about it,” Cassamas said. “It’s given us some clarity on our personnel.”

San Lorenzo Valley 48, Marina 7: Starring at an early deficit, the Cougars warmed to the weather Saturday afternoon in Felton, running off 48 unanswered points to improve to 6-0.

Having improved in the win column in each of the last three years, San Lorenzo Valley is one of two teams left in the Pacific Coast Athletic League that is undefeated, joining Carmel at 6-0.

Tri-leaders of the Santa Lucia Division with Stevenson and Pajaro Valley, the Cougars will not meet Stevenson until Nov. 2 at San Lorenzo Valley. Marina, meanwhile, is still looking for its identity, dropping to 1-5.

“Moving forward, it’s day-to-day, not week-to-week,” Marina coach JD Dennis said. “The mistakes we make are coming in practice. We have to clean that up first. We weren’t mentally or physically in-tuned at practice this past week.”

Yet, whatever was said in pregame, Dennis needs to bottle that for four quarters as Marina opened the game with a six-play, 80-yard drive, highlighted by Elon Espinosa connecting with Titus Calvera on a 34-yard completion.

Raju David capped the impressive drive when he took a snap out of the ‘wildcat’ formation and gave Marina a 7-0 lead with a 4-yard touchdown run.

However, a turning point in the game came with 10 seconds left in the first half when the Cougars, holding a 14-7 lead, scored on a 70-yard pass. Momentum quickly swung when SLV took the second half kickoff and scored to open up a 28-7 cushion.

“That was like a 14-point swing,” said Dennis, who guided Marina to a school record seven-win season in 2022. “The emphasis in practice has to be about energy. That’s on me. I need to challenge myself as well. We will make some changes.”

Marina will look to snap a two-game skid next Friday when it visits Santa Cruz, who has dropped 19 straight games dating back to 2022.

“We will show up on Monday and have forward thinking,” said Dennis, whose practice facility off campus has no lines, no goal posts and an abundance of gopher holes, as its new field on campus is being installed. “We don’t dwell about the past.”

Forum: Candidates weigh in on marine science and policy

SEASIDE >> About 80 people attended a recent marine science and policy forum at Cal State Monterey Bay featuring a group of candidates on the state ballot.

Many of those attendees, including several CSUMB students, said they came away having heard about what they expected from the three Democrats running for various state offices, but seemed surprised by some of the viewpoints Dalila Epperson, the Republican state assembly candidate, expressed challenging mainstream climate science.

“One panelist was spreading misinformation,” Stephanie Gamble, a CSUMB marine science senior, said about Epperson after the forum. “I was confused.”

The student reaction wasn’t distressing to event organizer and moderator James Lindholm, who chairs the university’s marine science department and has a distinguished professorship in science and policy.

“I think it’s important to hear all vantage points,” Lindholm said. He added, “The students were all up in arms. They were exercised and engaged as the result of conversation they saw on stage. That’s exactly what we were hoping would happen.”

During the two-hour event, the four candidates — State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), Assemblymember Gail Pellerin (D-Santa Cruz), Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) and Addis’s Republican opponent for District 30, Epperson —  fielded a wide range of questions concerning coastal California. Candidates in each of the races were invited. The three Democratic candidates were largely aligned. They expressed grave concern for the climate crisis and their support for renewable energy, ocean research and reduced plastic pollution. They highlighted the promise of the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, California’s fifth sanctuary.

When asked to name the most pressing issue for the Central Coast’s marine environment, Laird — who boasts a significant marine protection resume, including his previous work as California Secretary for Natural Resources — said the question asked him to “prioritize the top catastrophe on a list of catastrophes.” Yet his clear answer was climate change.

Meanwhile, Epperson’s responses to the same questions sounded starkly different, though environmental conservation is one of her stated campaign priorities. She expressed distrust for conventional scientists. She did not support renewable energy such as offshore wind, claiming manufacturing and use of turbines actually hurts the environment. After the Democrats voiced support for Proposition 4, the $10 billion climate bond on November’s ballot, Epperson said taxpayers were already overburdened. Regarding climate change, she acknowledged, “Over the past few years, our carbon dioxide has radically gone up.” Yet she continued, “But just remember, it’s not that bad. Carbon dioxide is plant food.”

Later, Epperson — who received 37 percent of the primary vote to represent District 30’s hundreds of miles of coastline in San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties —  expanded on why increased atmospheric carbon did not concern her. “[There’s] only 150 years of collecting data on weather patterns. What we have found when you look at those weather patterns is that it’s cyclic. It goes up and down,” she said.

After claiming that hurricanes are decreasing in intensity based, she said, on those 150 years of recorded weather activity and the seas are not rising based on observations of old photographs, she concluded, “I don’t think we have a problem here.”

World Weather Attribution scientists warn climate change is driving more intense hurricanes such as Helene and Milton — which made landfall days before and after this forum. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found seas have risen 8 inches on average globally since 1880 and, depending on emissions, could rise nationally up to 7 feet by 2100.

Laird, whose statements followed, countered Epperson for a rare, heated moment in the evening by arguing scientists in fact agree our emissions have caused a climate crisis.

His statement is widely supported. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says, “Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming.” IPCC reports average global temperatures are about 1.1°C warmer than in the 1800s and rising, with 2023 the warmest year on record. (In addition to using the temperature records that began in 1880, climate scientists rely on geologic records, among other tools, going back over three billion years.)

Once the speakers were off the stage, the students gathered among themselves to discuss some of Epperson’s views.

“Did they background check the panelists and what Dalila [Epperson]’s positions were?” Cove Kerr-Osman, a senior majoring in marine science, asked. “Since, based on her statements, her positions are not supported by this university and what we stand for here.”

Behind the scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Monterey Bay Aquarium counts down to its 40th anniversary next week, The Herald is doing a series of stories taking a closer look at the history, programs and behind-the-scenes management of the region’s most popular attraction. Today a look at what it takes to maintain a state-of-the-art attraction. To read previous articles in the series visit https://www.montereyherald.com/tag/aquarium/

MONTEREY – From touching up paint jobs before opening for the day to caring for the animals and doing repair work when things do go wrong, there’s always work to be done at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s just that the Aquarium staff would rather you didn’t pay attention to that.

“Something that we try to do wherever we possibly can is to keep our maintenance activities away from the public so we don’t spoil the experience for folks,” said Paul Clarkson, the Aquarium’s director of husbandry operations. “So just like any business, we’re trying to get ready for the customers in the morning.”

But the Aquarium has a lot of challenges other businesses don’t have and it starts with the maintaining the exhibits.

Creating a successful exhibit

“Nature is very complex, and you find when you’re trying to recreate living exhibits how complicated it is,” said Aquarium co-founder Julie Packard. “There’s no way you can replicate the actual situation that exists out in nature, so you have to figure out what are the most critical elements.”

The Kelp Forest, the unprecedented exhibit near the Aquarium entrance, posed an interesting challenge. Packard explained they had to decide how big and deep to make the tank, how much water motion there should be and how much current the kelp plants would need to effectively simulate the ocean. A large wave machine is still used for the exhibit 40 years later.

The layout of all of the tanks and building anatomy has to be taken into account when creating new exhibits, too, so guests can have the best viewing experience.

For the Kelp Forest, “you want maximum sunlight but you need it to be oriented in a way so it maximizes sunlight,” Packard said, “but then you don’t want sun coming in through the acrylic windows so visitors can’t see into the tank.

“Reflections in aquarium designs are a huge problem, including in the dark spaces, where if you have a bright tank across the hall from another bright tank, they’re going to be just reflecting on each other,” Packard explained. “So you have to be very exact about the placement of all of that.”

A volunteer cleans the Bat Ray Touch Pod in preparation for the Aquarium opening to guests. (Arianna Nalbach – Monterey Herald)Daily aquarium maintenanceA scuba diver cleans the sea otter tank in the morning before the Aquarium is open to guests. (Arianna Nalbach – Monterey Herald)

 

Throughout the week, divers – mostly volunteers – are sent into the tanks to scrub and clean prior to opening. For the sea otter exhibit, the otters are taken into a separate holding pool behind the visitor-facing exhibit to allow the divers to work.

“They’ve been trained to move into their holding pool, and they love hanging out in their little spa back there,” said Clarkson.

The maintenance demands don’t stop for exhibits without the water, either. Every morning, crew members will head to the aviary exhibit, either adding in new plants or cleaning up and checking on the birds.

“Shorebirds are super, super sensitive,” Clarkson explained. “So any sort of debris that was here from visitors or their own waste might bring health issues. This is our time to really get in there and get this whole thing polished up.”

For the birds, the mornings before opening also provide an opportunity for Aquarium staff to provide medical care they aren’t able to do during the public hours of 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The work still doesn’t stop outside of the exhibits with animals.

“Oftentimes we’ll have folks not only touching up the things that are underwater, but things out of the water, too. So we have a painter in here right now,” Clarkson said recently, gesturing over to a woman painting the kids’ play area, “and she’s touching up all the artwork that’s inside the tunnel that obviously gets a ton of kid traffic.”

More complex maintenance, like electrical work, takes more time than touching up paint.

“It’s difficult to get in kind of big maintenance activities on the electrical work. So a lot of that stuff goes on really early in the morning or late at night, sometimes in the wee morning hours,” Clarkson said.

Sea otters are relocated to a holding pool in the morning, allowing scuba divers the opportunity to clean the tank. (Arianna Nalbach – Monterey Herald)Animal care

Although staff check animals each morning, sometimes the animals need more thorough examinations.

Throughout the day, veterinary staff will perform these various procedures on the animals. For example, on a recent morning, Dot, the cusk eel, received an endoscopy to investigate something that came up on an X-ray.

Illustrations

Through an internship program at Cal State Monterey Bay, students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience producing science illustrations that benefit the Aquarium.

“It’s been remarkable, and it’s been really helpful for us because a lot of these animals simply don’t have really good scientific illustrations that are yet available out there in the literature,” Clarkson said. “So it allows our veterinary team to have drawings that they can use and reference for the medical care and communications back and forth with our staff. So it’s a pretty fantastic little connection there.”

Jellyfish, in particular, were interesting for the Aquarium to learn how to care for and exhibit – they were the first in the country to exhibit them.

In the jellyfish lab, Aquarium employees are able to monitor the jellies and prepare their food. (Arianna Nalbach – Monterey Herald)

“We’ve innovated and developed a lot of the ways in which you exhibit them and hold them,” Clarkson said. “In order to keep a jelly healthy, you have to essentially make the jelly feel like it’s in the open ocean because they’re not used to walls or the bottoms (of tanks). Most of them are swimming in endless water for their entire lives.

“So the jelly team back in the ’80s worked with an oceanographer to actually develop this type of tank, which is very unique and not a similar tank to what you keep a standard fish in that allows water to move around and keep the jellies continuously suspended as if they’re in the open ocean.”

When things do go wrong

Prior to opening, there were many challenges the aquarium team had to tackle, stressing the importance of animal care, animal wellbeing and the seawater systems.

“There were so many unknowns and things that we were struggling with that we weren’t sure would work,” Packard said.

Thinking back on the big complications the aquarium encountered, outside of the obvious answer of the COVID-19 pandemic, Packard remembered the open sea wing located to the right of the aquarium from the entrance.

“It was designed largely around being able to keep pelagic fishes like tunas that know no boundaries where they live,” she said. Eventually, they landed on lining the tank with little glass tiles for their longevity.

“But the tunas got so big, and they would swim close to the wall. The wall actually was a thin shell. We had water behind it, and the concrete structure. They caused movement in the shell and the tiles started popping off, which was a big problem,” Packard said. “We needed to fix that because that’s dangerous for the animals.” Turtles could have eaten the tiles, or the wall could have failed by getting a tear and animals could have been trapped behind it.

Packard explained they had to close the exhibit, drain the tank and move all the animals to temporary holding while engineering a new solution with fiberglass to fix it.

Clarkson also recalled a time when the rock wall in the Kelp Forest had to undergo major repairs.

“The original rockwork wall was created 40-some-odd years ago. During our closure at COVID time… a 10-foot section of this concrete wall fell off, cracked off and came smashing down to the bottom of the exhibit,” he said. Staff realized there was deterioration in the wall and they would have to replace it.

Clarkson explained that typically when public aquariums need to undergo maintenance like that, all of the animals would be removed from the habitat, the water would be drained and the replacement would be done in a dry environment. Monterey, of course, is no ordinary aquarium and took a different approach as they were gearing up to reopen to the public.

“So with some external partners, we innovated a process where we actually repaired the thing entirely underwater. We didn’t drain a drop of water out, we didn’t remove a single animal and did all of the construction underwater,” he said. “Most of it happened while we were open to the public.”

The entire reconstruction of the wall took place underwater, including new materials and concrete that cures underwater, which is “not typically the way that public aquariums do work like this, that we’re pretty confident that other aquariums are going to probably start to pick up on and use.

“That’s a huge part of what we’re doing right now, 40 years later is, how do you keep this beautiful place in tip-top shape?” Clarkson asked. “There’s a lot of kinds of maintenance and repair and investment and innovation that goes into just keeping this place together.”

Sea otters are relocated to a holding pool in the morning, allowing scuba divers the opportunity to clean the tank. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

A CSUMB student does scientific illustrations of the cusk eel while Aquarium staff prepare to perform the endoscopy. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

The small rocky shore tank gets cleaned roughly once a month because it is considered a more dangerous dive, due to the small and confined space. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

The hallways behind the guest-facing jellyfish tanks also have jellies in tanks. Some of tanks are also marked with how the water flows to simulate the open ocean. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

In the jellyfish lab, Aquarium employees are able to monitor the jellies and prepare their food. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

An Aquarium employee adds new plants to the Aviary dunes prior to opening. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

Show Caption1 of 6

Sea otters are relocated to a holding pool in the morning, allowing scuba divers the opportunity to clean the tank. (Arianna Nalbach - Monterey Herald)

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How voting before Election Day became so widespread and so political

By Robert Yoon, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters had plenty to argue about in the 1972 election, but they overwhelmingly agreed that when it came time to vote, they would do so in person on Election Day.

The act of voting was largely a communal experience that year, when roughly 95% of voters went to their local polling places and completed and submitted their ballots in person on a single day, according to a census survey at the time.

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That number would fall gradually over the next 50 years as states provided Americans with more options on how and when to vote.

By 2022, only about half of the electorate voted at the polls on Election Day. The share of people voting before Election Day spiked to more than 70% in 2020, and votes cast by mail surpassed those cast on Election Day for the first time ever. That year, many states enacted emergency measures to temporarily expand vote-by-mail options to protect voters from the spread of COVID-19.

“We’ve been on an upward trend of early voting over time as more states have adopted early voting options and voters have embraced them,” said University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald, who tracks voter turnout and early voting. “That’s resulted in a greater share of early votes being cast each election cycle.”

For most of that time, advance voting was a nonpartisan feature of elections, but a deep chasm formed between the parties on advance voting during and since the 2020 presidential election.

Voting before Election Day is much more common today than it was roughly 50 years ago. Yet it is highly politicized as voting in the 2024 presidential election is already underway.

What is advance voting?

Advance voting refers to the range of options that people have to vote before Election Day, whether by mail or in person at an election facility.

The term “early voting” can refer collectively to all voting that takes place before Election Day. Sometimes it refers explicitly to votes cast in person at local election offices or voting centers before Election Day.

To avoid confusion, The Associated Press generally uses terms like “advance voting” or “pre-Election Day voting” to refer to that broader category and “early in-person voting” for the narrower one. “Absentee voting” usually refers to ballots cast by mail.

What are the different types of advance voting?

Voting before Election Day includes both voting by mail and in-person voting conducted before Election Day.

Early in-person voting tends to mimic the experience of voting in person on Election Day, down to the type of voting equipment used and the locations serving as voting centers. The main difference is that the voting is conducted before Election Day. The length of early in-person voting periods varies by state.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, right, leaves Surprise City Hall after voting on the first day of early in-person voting for the general election Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Mail voting can be further divided into at least two smaller categories: “no-excuse absentee voting,” where any voter may request a mail ballot for any reason, and “excuse-required absentee voting,” where only voters with a valid excuse as to why they cannot vote in person on Election Day may vote by mail.

Requiring an excuse to vote absentee, such as travel or illness, used to be the norm in most states. Today, a shrinking handful of states still require voters to provide an authorized excuse.

A third category of mail voting is a hybrid of mail voting and early in-person voting: in-person absentee voting, where a voter submits (and sometimes fills out) a mail ballot in person at an elections office.

A small but growing number of states conduct their elections predominantly by mail. Those states, plus a few others and the District of Columbia, automatically send every registered voter a ballot.

When did advance voting begin?

Variations of absentee voting and voting over multiple days have been part of American elections since the nation’s founding. Today’s system of mail voting and early in-person voting took root more than a century ago. In 1921, Louisiana paved the way for a formalized early in-person voting system when its constitution specified that “the Legislature may provide a method by which absentee voting will be permitted other than by mail.”

Voting by mail is even older, but relatively few voters were allowed to take advantage of it as of 1972. Just two years later, Washington became the first state in the nation to allow any voter to request a mail ballot for any reason.

By 2005, more than half the states adopted no-excuse absentee voting. Today, only Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire provide neither early in-person voting nor no-excuse absentee voting.

Does one political party use advance voting more than the other?

Yes, but it wasn’t always that way.

Voting before Election Day steadily grew more popular in both Democratic and Republican-controlled states after 1972. Although there was a partisan split in some states that sometimes varied from election to election, polling from Gallup shows that nationwide there was little partisan divide on advance voting between 2004 and 2016. But the survey showed that voters’ plans to use early voting sharply diverged along party lines in the 2020 presidential election.

AP’s VoteCast survey of the 2020 electorate found a similar result, with additional details on how the choice of voting method divided the electorate. About two-thirds of the votes cast by mail in that election were for Democrat Joe Biden, compared with about one-third for Republican President Donald Trump. In contrast, Trump won about two-thirds of the in-person Election Day vote, compared with about one-third for Biden.

When it came to early in-person voting, there was a near-even split, with Trump having only the slightest advantage.

Biden overperformed among those casting votes before Election Day, especially among mail-in voters, even in many states that Trump won by a wide margin, VoteCast showed.

“This is just an across-the-board, national phenomenon,” McDonald said.

These patterns continued in the 2022 midterm elections, with Democrats accounting for the bulk of the mail vote, Republicans casting most of the Election Day vote and Republicans holding a small advantage in early in-person voting.

McDonald noted that party behavior on pre-Election Day voting was, if anything, the opposite before 2020.

“People who voted by mail tended to be more Republican than the people who voted in-person early,” he said, but those patterns “were suddenly turned upside down” during the pandemic.

What led to the partisan split in advance voting?

During the 2020 election, Trump repeatedly disparaged, politicized and undermined mail voting, going as far as to block funding to the U.S. Postal Service to thwart its ability to process mail ballots he claimed without evidence were susceptible to widespread tampering.

Trump’s messaging on mail balloting has been somewhat inconsistent. At times he has said “absentee voting” is “ good. ” But he also has claimed that mail voting is ripe for fraud, something not borne out by decades of mail voting conducted in every state. Trump himself has cast mail ballots on multiple occasions, including in the 2020 primaries.

Trump’s rhetoric seems to have taken a toll on Republican confidence in mail voting. An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in 2023 found that 58% of Republicans were not very or not at all confident that mail votes would be counted accurately, compared with 32% in 2018. Among Democrats, confidence in the counting of mail ballots increased, from 28% saying they were very or extremely confident in 2018 to 52% in 2023.

What will advance voting look like in 2024?

“We need to wait and see how 2024 plays out before we make definitive statements about what the early voting is telling us” about the election, McDonald said.

Absentee voting in some states began as early as mid-September, and more than half the states had begun some type of voting by Oct. 1.

Associated Press writer Maya Sweedler contributed to this report.

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Where are the voters who could decide the presidential election?

By MAYA SWEEDLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — When you hear the term bellwether, you might think about states in the presidential election that always vote with the White House winner. The true meaning of a bellwether is an indicator of a trend. And for that, you need to be thinking about counties.

In a closely contested presidential election, as many expect 2024 to be, the results in a few bellwether counties in the key battleground states are likely to decide the outcome, just as they did in the past two general elections.

Here’s a look at those that might matter the most on Election Day.

Start with the cities

Many of those states have large, Democratic-leaning cities. These cities and their inner suburbs are an important source of Democratic votes in statewide elections. These areas consistently vote for the Democratic candidates, which means turnout in these places can have an outsized effect on the final statewide margin.

This year, look at Michigan’s Wayne County (Detroit), North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) and Georgia’s Fulton County (Atlanta).

FILE – Poll volunteers work inside Ford Field, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Republican candidates have tended to do well in the more rural areas of these states, which means Democrat Kamala Harris will need to run up big margins in these places in order to offset Republican Donald Trump’s advantage elsewhere.

Detroit, Charlotte and Atlanta are particularly large, about twice as populous as the next biggest municipality in each state. In 2020, voters in those three counties cast more than two-thirds of their votes for Democrat Joe Biden.

The suburbs matter

The turnout and margin in the counties around Milwaukee and Philadelphia will be significant to the results in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, respectively.

In Wisconsin, the key counties that surround Milwaukee are Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha — known colloquially as the “WOW” counties. These historically Republican-leaning communities have been slowly moving to the left: Republican presidential candidates have won them in recent elections, but by increasingly smaller margins.

FILE – The city skyline is seen as the sun sets Tuesday, July 11, 2023, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

This forces Republican candidates to seek to run up turnout in more rural areas of the state rather than relying on those counties to offset losses in the state’s urban counties of Milwaukee and Dane, home to Madison, the state capital and the University of Wisconsin’s main campus. It will be a good night for Trump if high turnout and margins in the “WOW” counties look more like the early 2000s, rather than 2020.

Philadelphia’s collar counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware are among the state’s wealthiest. They, too, are historic Republican strongholds that have shifted left for decades. Democratic presidential candidates have carried three of them since the 1992 election; Chester flipped between the parties throughout the 2000s.

The massive counties

Arizona and Nevada are unique because in both states, one county is home to so much of the state’s population. More than 60% of ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election in Arizona came from Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, while more than two-thirds of Nevada votes came from Clark, home to Las Vegas.

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In states where voters are so overwhelmingly concentrated in a single county, even a narrow win can produce big shifts in the statewide numbers. Biden won 50.3% of the vote in Maricopa in 2020, beating Trump by about 45,000 votes, and that was enough to win the state by just over 10,000 votes. In Nevada, Biden lost 14 of the state’s 15 counties, but his 91,000-vote margin over Trump in Clark was enough to secure his statewide victory of 34,000 votes.

Helene’s aftermath

Trump’s margin of victory in North Carolina was just 74,481 votes in 2020, a little more than 1 percentage point and the tightest of any state he won that year over Biden. It’s not yet clear, and may not be by Election Day, Nov. 5, how Hurricane Helene will affect the election in North Carolina.

The storm’s impact was severe in Buncombe County and the Asheville area, one of two counties in western North Carolina carried by Biden four years ago. The other counties in the region are reliably Republican, and suffered alongside Buncombe a level of destruction described by the state’s governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, as “unlike anything our state has ever experienced.”

FILE – Debris is visible in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Sept. 30, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

“We’ve battled through hurricanes and tropical storms and still held safe and secure elections, and we will do everything in our power to do so again,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s election board, said a few days after Helene struck. “Mountain people are strong, and the election people who serve them are resilient and tough, too.”

The swing counties

Across the seven main battleground states in 2024, there are 10 counties — out of more than 500 — that voted for Trump in 2016 then flipped to Biden in 2020. Most are small and home to relatively few voters, with Arizona’s Maricopa a notable exception. So it’s not likely they’ll swing an entire state all by themselves.

What these counties probably will do is provide an early indication of which candidate is performing best among the swing voters likely to decide a closely contested race. It doesn’t take much for a flip. For example, the difference in Wisconsin, in both 2016 and 2020. was only about 20,000 votes.

North Carolina’s two Trump-Biden counties – New Hanover on the Atlantic Coast and Nash, northeast of Raleigh – are likely to be the first among the 10 to finish counting their vote on election night. Polls close next in Michigan’s Kent, Saginaw and Leelanau counties and Pennsylvania’s Erie and Northampton counties, followed by Wisconsin’s Sauk and Door. Maricopa is the closer.

Associated Press writers Robert Yoon and Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Horoscopes Oct. 12, 2024: Hugh Jackman, expansion is on the rise

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Josh Hutcherson, 32; Tyler Blackburn, 38; Bode Miller, 47; Hugh Jackman, 56.

Happy Birthday: Push forward with vim and vigor, socialize, express yourself creatively and look for innovative ways to invest and budget your cash flow with finesse. It’s a turning point and an opportunity to make moves, incorporate new ideas and plans, and express who you are and what you offer. Expansion is on the rise, and marketing yourself and what you do best will encourage unprecedented offers that are fruitful and fun. Your numbers are 9, 13, 20, 27, 31, 38, 47.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’ll gain momentum if you participate in an event that addresses a cause that concerns you. The people you share ideas with will motivate you to help enforce change, and your circle of friends will grow. A financial or medical issue will turn out better than anticipated. 4 stars

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Take advantage of any opportunity to observe what others do and say, and it will help you formulate how you can have a positive impact. Put your energy into personal growth meaningful relationships and home improvements. Romance is in the stars. 2 stars

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Strengthen your ties with someone beneficial. The information you receive will help you decide how to move forward. Raising your credentials or using your skills uniquely will help you be a contender in a competitive situation. Keep your plans a secret until you are ready to launch. 5 stars

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Pay attention to details, and keep your plans simple and your budget reasonable. Don’t expect everyone to agree with you. If you want to avoid discord, don’t share your thoughts or plans. Make personal goals, self-improvement, health and fitness priorities. Socialize, but don’t share your beliefs. 3 stars

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Sit tight. Look at your options. Devise a strategy, but don’t jeopardize your reputation or your finances. Concentrate on learning, listening and formulating a plan that stands the test of time and will carry you into the future with enough momentum to make innovative changes. 3 stars

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A lifestyle change that includes doing things that bring you joy is favored. Stop pandering to other people and make choices that put a smile on your face. A positive attitude will carry its weight with others and bring you the satisfaction you desire and deserve. 3 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Get out, mingle and indulge in a deep conversation with someone who challenges you intellectually, and you will gain insight into an alternative lifestyle. Gather information and sign up for an activity that will positively impact how you proceed. Put your thoughts and energy into upgrading your qualifications. 5 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Bypass what you cannot change and focus on creative pursuits, social events, learning or reconnecting with someone you miss. Life is about living, and it’s up to you to reach out and to make things happen. A change of scenery will be uplifting and rewarding and ease stress. 2 stars

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Too much of anything will set you back. Sign up or volunteer your time to a cause you want to help. Donating cash is fine, but hands-on help will give you more satisfaction and frontline insight into what’s possible and how to become the pivotal point to progress. 4 stars

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You may want change, but don’t expect it to come without a fight. Don’t take on someone else’s troubles. You are best not to participate in something that leads to trouble or is impossible to fix. Be a good listener or financial contributor, but don’t tarnish your reputation. 3 stars

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Look for opportunities and be ready, willing and able to see them through to fruition. The satisfaction you get and the people you meet along the way will have a positive impact on how you proceed. Don’t make changes for the wrong reason. Do what’s best for you. 3 stars

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Uncertainty will fester if you don’t address pertinent issues. Listen to your heart and associate with those who share your concerns and beliefs. Adopt a healthy attitude and take care of yourself physically, your loved ones and your financial well-being. Enforce discipline, budget wisely and lower your overhead. 3 stars

Birthday Baby: You are curious, thoughtful and intense. You are demonstrative and powerful.

1 star: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. 4 stars: Aim high; start new projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

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