Hello there, friends and neighbors. Election Day – Tuesday, June 2 – has dawned, with a foggy start and clouds that could linger well into the day. As always, your microclimate may vary, but most of us should see sunny skies at some point, with highs in the mid-80s in the mountains, 60s by the bay.
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With voting ending today in local and state primary elections, Max Chun has Lookout’s guide to not only where and how to vote – and at this point, you should plan on voting in person or dropping your ballot in a county drop box – but also information on all the races. Polls close at 8 p.m., and our team will be covering it all as results are released into the night – sign up here for updates via email, and get all our coverage, including via breaking news notifications, by downloading the Lookout Santa Cruz app.
Monday brought the news that Stephen Gray is stepping down as CEO of struggling Watsonville Community Hospital, less than three years after assuming the role. As Tania Ortiz reports, the process of finding an interim replacement is underway, with a broader search for a permanent CEO set for the fall – all against the backdrop of the hospital searching for an external partner to help manage the facility’s day-to-day operations.
In Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, members of advocacy group Care Not Cages urge residents to weigh in on Santa Cruz County’s budget priority in a time of belt-tightening. Tamar Ragir, Kathy Lass and Leslie Potenzo argue that protecting healthcare and community support programs is essential to building a safer county, and question why health and human services departments had a decrease of more than 50 positions in the proposed budget while the sheriff’s office and probation face no staff cuts.
To the headlines …
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Election Day in Santa Cruz County: How and where to vote and what to know about all the races
Get all the information you need as a Santa Cruz County voter as the June 2 primary election arrives. Max Chun runs it all down.
➤ ELECTION 2026: Catch up on all of Lookout’s free coverage here
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Stephen Gray to step down from position in July
Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Stephen Gray will be stepping down from his role in early July, according to hospital leadership. The search for an interim replacement is currently underway. Here’s the latest from Tania Ortiz.
DAILY DIGEST
All right, we’re saddled up for Election Day, and as I mentioned, the Lookout team will be burning the midnight oil to bring you the latest results. Sign up here for free breaking news alerts via email, and get breaking news notifications on the Lookout Santa Cruz app, available from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store; Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Threads are where you can keep up via social media. And if you’re looking for a bit of a palate cleanse, we’ve got that on menu, too, via Lily Belli on Food, coming later today – just one of Lookout’s many free newsletters.
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Get out there and vote if you haven’t already, and c’mon back to Lookout later to see how things are shaking out. Thanks for reading!
Will McCahill