LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — As the process of completing the count for the Nov. 5 election continues, elections officials on Thursday issued a report on the number of unprocessed ballots, which surpasses the number at this time four years ago.

The Lake County Registrar of Voters said that during the 28-day official canvass period, there are 19,021 ballots still to count.

That total includes the following breakdown:

• Vote-by-mail ballots: 17,445.
• Provisional/conditional ballots: 1,453.
• Vote-by-Mail ballots that require further review for various reasons: 123.

The registrar’s office reported that the unprocessed ballot number could change, as there are still ballots being returned by mail.

The deadline for elections officials to receive vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail for the Nov. 5 General Election is Nov. 12.

Those ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and delivered to the elections office by the U.S. Postal Service or a private mail delivery company no later than seven days after Election Day.

The number of unprocessed ballots reported on Thursday is up slightly from the number reported at this point after the 2020 election, when there were 18,270 ballots remaining to be tallied.

The final voter turnout for the 2020 presidential election was 78.42%. Based on the current count of both unprocessed and processed ballots, this year’s final turnout could be around 71%.

The California Secretary of State’s Office reported on Thursday that 10,728,985 ballots have been counted so far. The estimated number of ballots left to count is 5,472,423.

The official canvass period

While the preliminary election counts were issued on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the elections office cautioned that those are not final results.

“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,” the Registrar of Voters Office reported.

The process includes the requirement that 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. Election staff must verify the number of vote-by-mail ballots processed by the voting precinct before the envelopes can be opened. Once staff balances, the envelopes can be opened.

There also are “polls provisional ballots” which are cast at polling places on Election Day.

Poll workers Lake County News spoke to on Election Day reported receiving a large volume of provisional ballots.

Some of the reasons a voter is issued a provisional ballot include:

• 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” are issued to a person who missed the regular voter registration deadline of Oct. 21, but they still have the option to vote in an election by conditionally registering to vote and casting a conditional ballot. This is also same day voter registration.

Voters who were allowed to sign the roster-index and issued a ballot at their assigned polling place will have their ballot 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. The elections office said its 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, the elections office reported.

As part of the official canvass, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, the Registrar of Voter’s Office will conduct a public manual tally of a minimum of 1% of randomly selected precincts which will include each contest voted on at the Nov. 5 General Election. The selection of the precincts to be included in the manual tally will be randomly chosen on the same date prior to the manual tally.

Community members can view the public manual tally at the elections office, located at 325 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.