LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Registrar of Voters office reported that the official canvass for the March 5 primary is underway, with thousands of ballots still to be counted.
The agency said the results for the primary posted so far are not final, with the Elections Office now in the midst of the 30-day official canvass period.
As of Friday, still to be counted were 8,059 vote-by-mail ballots, 266 provisional/conditional ballots and 149 vote-by-mail ballots that require further review for various reasons, for a grand total of 8,474 ballots.
In addition, the Registrar of Voters Office reported that the deadline for elections officials to receive vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail for the March 5 Presidential Primary Election is March 12 if it is postmarked on or before Election Day and delivered to the elections office by the US Postal Service or a private mail delivery company no later than seven days after Election Day.
Elections officials said there are many checks and balances when certifying the election results. The process of certifying election results, also known as the official canvass, is mandated by state law to make sure the public can have confidence in the integrity of the final results. Staff members are working very diligently on completing all tasks required to certify the election.
“Vote-by-mail” ballots must be examined by staff to see if the signature compares with the voter’s signature on file.
After the vote-by-mail voter’s information has been entered and proofed, the vote-by-mail envelopes have to be sorted by voting precinct. Staff must verify the number of vote-by-mail processed by the voting precinct before the envelopes can be opened. Once staff balances, the envelopes can be opened.
“Polls provisional ballots” are cast at the polling places on Election Day. Some of the reasons a voter is issued a Provisional Ballot:
• The voter’s name is listed on the active voter roster list as a vote-by-mail voter and the voter is unable to surrender his/her vote-by-mail ballot in order to be issued a polls ballot.
• The voter’s name is not printed in the roster-index, has moved and did not re-register to vote at his/her new residence address.
• A voter is voting in the wrong voting precinct and not his/her assigned voting precinct.
• A first time voter who is required to provide ID, but is unable to do so.
• The voter’s eligibility to vote cannot be determined by the poll worker.
“Conditional voter ballots” issued to a person who missed the regular voter registration deadline of Feb. 20 but they still have the option to vote in an election by conditionally registering to vote and casting a conditional ballot (same day voter registration).
Voters that were allowed to sign the roster-index and issued a ballot at their assigned polling place, their voted ballot was counted at the Registrar of Voters office, on Election Night.
In addition, all of the roster-Indexes must also be examined for errors or omissions. Staff checks the ballot statement including the number of returned voted ballots against the number of voters who signed the roster-index.
Provisional and conditional voter signatures also need to match the number of voter provisional and conditional ballots. Once this is done, staff must enter voter history from each of the roster-indexes and record it into the voting system as voter history.
For more information call the Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372 or toll-free at 888-235-6730.