Elections officials expect an unprecedented number of Coastside voters to turn out for Tuesday’s election, testing local voting systems and procedures like never before.

But San Mateo County Elections Manager David Tom says being prepared for “Tsunami Tuesday,” means having plenty of safeguards in place so that when unexpected things happen, the system continues to operate.

“With so many people voting there’s going to be some issues coming up,” Tom said. “It’s managed chaos, but we put in a good support system for any issues that come up.” With the much-watched and discussed election between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain, as much as 81 percent of registered voters in San Mateo County are expected to vote, either by coming out to a polling station Tuesday or by turning in a ballot in advance.

By comparison, only 29 percent of registered voters cast a ballot during the most recent election, the June state primary.

With approximately 390,000 people registered to vote in the county, Tom says that voters may face lines as long as a half-hour, particularly at peak times of the day: during the morning, lunchtime and after-work periods.

“Long lines in California are different than long lines in other areas in the country,” Tom said. “People in Ohio waited 12 hours to vote in 2004.”

Nov. 4 will be the first election for the county’s new stock of voting machines, purchased last year. Tom estimates that each machine can handle about 300 voters in a given election day. However, any voter in San Mateo County who prefers to avoid voting on an electronic machine can still request a paper ballot at the voting station.

Nonetheless, a much higher number of people — about 47 percent — are choosing to vote via absentee ballots instead of going to the polling stations.

Tom could not provide exact absentee statistics, but he estimated that an even higher percentage of voters will be casting their ballots via mail on the Coastside than from the rest of the county.

“Coastside voters will probably be farther from the polling place,” Tom said. “So, really, voting by mail is a lot more convenient.”

According to the county election office, about 7,100 residents of Half Moon Bay are registered to vote, approximately half are registered Democrats. Another 1,800 are registered Republicans.

Half Moon Bay resident and election poll worker Marta Jacobsen says she’s thrilled that this election is generating such interest and high voter turnout.

“There’s just so much patriotic enthusiasm,” the 72-year-old said. “I’m so glad so many people are coming out and voting. The last three elections it was like nobody knew there was an election going on.”

Jacobsen says that continuous voter registration drives along the Coastside have been enormously successful. She recalls working at the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival and signing up more than 500 voters.

“This country is ready for a big election,” she said. “You can just touch the enthusiasm practically.”

All voting stations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 4. All absentee ballots need to be received at the elections office by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4.