SOME VOTERS TRUE TO TRADITION ABSENTEE BALLOTS CAST BY MOST, BUT DIEHARDS STILL HEAD FOR THE BOOTH.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS  Staff Writer

VALENCIA -- Geoffrey Roberts left his polling location Tuesday sporting a satisfied look.

``I enjoy making an appearance, it makes me feel proactive and involved in the voting process,'' Roberts said.

Roberts, a self-employed accountant residing in Valencia, is part of a dying breed of voters in Santa Clarita. He went to the polls Tuesday to cast his vote. No absentee ballot, no touch screen, no risk of a software glitch to cancel -- or skew -- his vote.

Longer commutes and workdays have lead many residents to opt out of traditional voting methods, choosing to mail in absentee ballots or cast electronic votes via touch-screen polling locations.

As Angela Harris quickly dropped off her absentee ballot she cited traffic as her motivation. Harris is not alone -- city demographics say 97 percent of Santa Clarita's workers commute at least 33 minutes to work every day.

``I have to drive into Sherman Oaks so the absentee vote guarantees me my vote and that's important,'' Harris said.

More than half of the votes cast for the city elections in April were done through absentee voting, City Clerk Sharon Dawson said.

But there are still diehards who insist on casting their votes in a booth, pen in hand. Nationwide, electronic voting has drawn suspicions with groups from both major parties monitoring Tuesday's elections for fraud, software errors or other problems. And in recent elections, lost absentee ballots cost votes.

Dawson said absentee voting is a sound method of casting a ballot.

``Absentee voting is one of the most securely processed votes cast,'' Dawson said.

Absentee votes are verified by matching the ballot signature to voter registration signatures and the verification is done prior to counting the ballot.

Touch-screen voting also was open to voters up until last week at the Valencia Library.

Still many people remained true to tradition and voted in person.

``I just moved here from Texas, I am just doing what I always do,'' Dr. Sakile Camara said.

Valencia resident Bruce Hunt made Election Day a lesson on democracy for his 4-year-old son Steven.

``He hears about war and soldiers and I just wanted to show him that they die to protect these freedoms,'' Hunt said.

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(1 -- 2 -- color) Teaching the importance of voting Tuesday, Bruce Hunt of Valencia brought along his son, Steven Hunt, 4, at the Valencia Hyatt. Angela Harris, below, of Valencia said she usually casts an absentee ballot like almost half of Santa Clarita residents.

David Crane/Staff Photographer