Registrar explains wait for final election results

Final results in this week’s municipal elections in Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs aren’t expected until next week with two races remaining “too close to call” Thursday night.

New results posted by the County Registrar of Voters office show Scott Matas with a 49 vote lead over incumbent Adam Sanchez in the Desert Hot Springs mayoral election.

In the race for the 2nd open seat on Palm Springs City Council, J.R. Roberts holds a 42 vote lead over incumbent Paul Lewin.

A new state law is slowing down the counting this week.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters, Rebecca Spencer, says the law mandates that the county wait three days to close mail-in ballot counting so that any ballots that were post marked by election day are included in the tally.

In previous years, only mail-in ballots received by election day were counted.

Provisional ballot counting can’t begin until Saturday after all mail-in ballots are processed.

There are 250 provisional ballots in Desert Hot Springs and 525 in Palm Springs.

Provisional ballots need to be checked for voter eligibility and against the ballots already received at polling places and through the mail-in process to make sure no one voted multiple times.

The next update on results isn’t expected until next Tuesday but could come sooner depending on the counting process.