The first day of early voting in a presidential election year kicked off with a brisk start this morning.

There were eight people waiting to vote at 8:30 a.m. at the Tooele County Courthouse. A minor glitch in the computer that was supposed to magnetize cards voters insert into the new electronic machines to identify their precinct caused a short delay. Otherwise, everything went according to plan, said Marilyn Gillette, Tooele County Clerk.

Karen Etchepare and Sophie Nix, both from Tooele, were among the first to cast a vote.

“We will be out of town on Election Day,” Etchepare said.

Ron Silva came to vote along with his parents, Ruby and Julian.

“We just wanted to get out of the mess of Election Day,” said Julian.

Tooele City Councilman Mike Johnson was among today’s early voters. Johnson, who works as an attorney in Salt Lake City, is scheduled for a trial on Election Day.

“We really wanted to vote in the presidential race,” said Nathan and Giang Young, both of whom will also be out of the country on Election Day.

Any registered voter can show up at one of three early voting locations throughout the county and cast a ballot for the November general election. Early voting sites include the Tooele County Courthouse, Grantsville City Hall and Rose Springs Elementary. These sites will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. from Oct. 21 through Oct. 31, except on the evening of Oct. 31 when they will close at 5:00 p.m. for Halloween.

Additional early voting will be conducted at the Tooele Senior Citizen Center on Oct. 22 from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon and again on Oct. 24 from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Also on Wednesday, Oct. 29, early voting will be conducted at the Grantsville Senior Center from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Yesterday, Monday, Oct. 20, was the last day to register to vote in the election. The Clerk’s Office processed over 300 new voter registrations, according to Gillette.

Gillette anticipates this will be a record-setting year for voter turnout.

“This is about what we expected,” she said, referring to the number of people turning out for early voting. About 30 percent of the total voters are expected to vote early, according to Gillette. It costs the county $10,000 to man the polls for early voting.“The only reason I have heard from people that want to wait to vote on Election Day is that they are afraid something big might happen after they have cast their vote,” Gillette said.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com