Could dangerous winds and power outages affect voting in California?

Power outages due to dangerous winds could affect nearly 240,000 people across California this week, but officials say there should be no disruption to voting even if some polling places lose power.

Outages are possible across Northern and Southern California through Thursday. The goal is to reduce the risk of downed or damaged power lines starting fires as high winds develop across the state.

Two consecutive offshore wind events have resulted in widespread warnings and fire weather warnings from Orange County to the Napa region. These warnings are in effect in different areas for different periods of time until Thursday.

For much of Monday, only 36 customers in Los Angeles County experienced shutdowns “due to increased wildfire risk,” Southern California Edison reported.

But that's just the beginning. David Eisenhauer, an SCE, said it could affect more than 200,000 customers across the Southland – about 47,000 in Los Angeles County, 59,000 in Riverside County, 40,000 in Ventura County, 8,000 in Orange County and 63,000 in San Bernardino County – on Wednesday and Thursday. Speakers are blocked.

In Northern California, Pacific Gas & Electric is considering power shutoffs Tuesday through Thursday for about 20,000 customers in 17 counties, most of them in Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Tehama counties, said Jeff Smith, a spokesman for the utility. The outages were likely due to “high winds and dry conditions,” PG&E reported.

Early voting continued Monday at voting centers across the state, and on Tuesday voters will be able to cast their ballot in person at hundreds of polling locations. Verification and counting of ballots is expected to take at least a few days, if not weeks.

Six early voting sites in Southern California were being considered for outages Monday, Eisenhauer said, but none experienced disruptions.

“We know how important it is for our communities to exercise their right to vote,” said Eisenhauer. “We have worked with the district governments to exploit possible potential [shutoffs] Use of the county's backup plans. … We have additional generators on standby if they need them.”

The utility did not plan any outages for Tuesday because a break in the wind is expected for Southland, Eisenhauer said. He said no election processing centers would be affected during the week, as further outages would be possible then. However, he noted that “weather conditions are subject to change.”

Election officials contacted by the Times on Monday in Riverside and Ventura counties said they were prepared for backup power if there were power outages. However, based on their locations and SCE's current plans, none of these were expected to impact election processing centers.

“We’re keeping a close eye on this,” said Elizabeth Florer, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. “We have a plan.”

In Northern California, five polling places — one each in Lake and Santa Clara counties and three in Solano County — are in the zone where shutdowns are being considered Tuesday, Smith said, but power is not expected to be shut off until the polls close. Regardless, he said, the utility is working to ensure backup power generation is available for any polling places that may lose power, as wind conditions and schedules can constantly change.

“We will continue to monitor as long as the weather is there,” Smith said. He said the utility is in constant communication with election officials and the two locations where outages may occur.

Smith said there are no ballot processing centers in the PG&E area, which could lead to possible outages.

On Monday, much of the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura County remained under a red flag – an extreme fire weather warning – due to strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity. North and northeast winds were forecast to gust up to 50 miles per hour, with the strongest gusts occurring in the higher elevations of the Simi Valley and San Fernando Valley.

Areas covered by the red flag warning “are at greater risk of rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior if ignition occurs,” the National Weather Service warning said.

Winds are expected to ease across the Southland Monday through Tuesday before forecasters predict a second wind event expected to hit Northern California first.

A red flag warning is in effect across the Bay Area and Central Coast Tuesday through Thursday, with average gusts of 25 to 50 mph. National Weather Service forecasters said it was expected to be a “prolonged offshore fluvial event” that would cause brush and vegetation in the area to “harden quickly,” leaving it vulnerable to fire despite recent rains.

These winds are expected to extend to much of Southern California through Wednesday and Thursday, with a fire weather warning issued for the mountains of San Bernardino County, the Inland Empire and inland Orange County from Tuesday night through Thursday. Many Los Angeles and Ventura counties have a similar warning in effect Wednesday and Thursday.

“If fire ignition occurs, conditions are favorable for rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior that would endanger life and property,” the National Weather Service said, warning that winds on Wednesday and Thursday could be more dangerous than early on of the week. even stronger Santa Ana winds and drier fuels.”

The interior mountains and foothills of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties are under a red flag warning Tuesday evening through Wednesday.

San Diego Gas & Electric has not reported any areas in its region that could experience preemptive power shutoffs.

After downed power lines were found to have sparked some of California's deadliest and most devastating fires, the state's three largest utilities have adopted a prevention strategy to avoid sparking fires during high wind events. Utilities are proactively shutting down portions of their grids, a process known as public safety shutdowns, in areas authorities believe are at highest risk of a fire.