SACRAMENTO — On election eve, early voting was pointing to historic turnout numbers. The picture is becoming clear of who is voting ahead of Election Day and who is not. 

Paul Mitchell with Political Data Incorporated crunched the numbers, which show that there is a wide gap between younger and older early voters. 

“We’re still getting data in, so we just got another little update,” Mitchell said. “Seniors are up to 58% turnout and young voters are at 18% turnout.” 

In California, 31% of registered voters have already cast their ballots as of the day before Election Day. 

Michelle Macey cast her ballot in Sacramento County, becoming one of the thousands to take part in early voting here. 

“I have to get my vote in,” Macey said. “I’m just nervous because it’s coming down to the wire.”

By county, Sacramento was also at 31%, while San Joaquin and Stanislaus were at 29%. 

“We still have an environment where older voters vote early and young voters vote late, and that means that campaigns right now are knocking on doors,” Mitchell said. 

Bill O’Neill, the El Dorado County registrar of voters, has watched his county’s early numbers thrive. 

“I think, right now, based on the number of ballots we’re processing, we’ll be number one pretty soon,” O’Neill said. 

The top three California counties for voter turnout so far were Amador at 52%, Nevada at 52%, and El Dorado at 48%. 

In El Dorado County, 70% of registered voters 65-plus have already cast their ballots. 

For those who are waiting until Election Day to cast their ballots, the political competition poses a different challenge. 

“There’s a saying, particularly on the Democratic side of races, that the opposition is not the Republican on the other side of the ticket. The opposition is the couch. It’s Kamala Harris versus the couch,” Mitchell said. 

So far, the numbers show Lake County has reported the fewest ballots returned so far with 13%.

SAN FRANCISCO – Residents of highly populated areas in California are being urged to exercise caution around fire sources as several factors combine to dramatically increase the risk of blazes Monday – and even more so later in the week.

More than 25 million of the state’s 39 million people will be under red flag warnings or fire weather watches this week because of warm temperatures, low humidity and powerful winds, as high as 80 mph in some elevations, strong enough to qualify for a hurricane.

“Gusty easterly winds and low relative humidity will support elevated to critical fire weather over coastal portions of California today into Thursday,’’ the National Weather Service said Monday.

The offshore air currents, known as Santa Ana winds in Southern California and Diablo winds in the San Francisco Bay Area, have been blamed in the past for knocking down power lines and igniting wildfires, then quickly spreading them amid dry vegetation.

In a warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties that applied to Sunday night and all of Monday, the NWS office in Los Angeles said wind gusts in the mountains – typically the hardest areas for firefighters to reach – could fluctuate from 55 to 80 mph.

“Stronger and more widespread Santa Ana winds Wednesday and Thursday,’’ the posting said.

San Francisco Chronicle meteorologist Anthony Edwards said this week’s offshore winds – which defy the usual pattern by blowing from inland west toward the ocean – represent the strongest such event in the state in several years.

Edwards added that winds atop the Bay Area’s highest mountains could reach 70 mph, which will likely prompt preemptive power shutoffs from utility company PG&E, and may go even higher in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The Bay Area’s red flag warning runs from 11 a.m. Tuesday until early Thursday, and it includes a warning to “have an emergency plan in case a fire starts near you.’’