KESQ investigates election polling problems
The election is less than a week away and the pressure is mounting at the Riverside County Registrar of Voter’s office. Hundreds of thousands of vote-by-mail ballots are already being sorted and counted.
Riverside County Registrar of Voters, Rebecca Spencer, says her office is ready for the big day. There are 400 temporary workers on the job, processing ballots that have already arrived. There will be 3,500 workers at nearly 600 polling places on November 8th. Spencer says, “It takes a lot of work ahead of time to make sure that things go smoothly as possible.” There have been problems in the past including slow counting, among the slowest in the state. Spencer says it’ll be a long process again, “We want to set realistic expectations and make sure everyone is aware of that in advance.” She believes it may take until 8:00 a.m. Wednesday to finish the initial counting. The good news is close to 70 percent of Riverside County ballots will be turned-in ahead of time with more people voting by mail. Most of those results will be included in the first vote totals the registrar will report on election night. That means the first report sometime between 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. will give everyone a good idea of what the final results may be. Spencer says, “Statistically speaking, the results from that first update usually hold their ground unless it’s an extremely close contest.” The registrar has faced other complaints. A critical grand jury report found issues with the election last November including: incorrect polling place addresses, poorly trained poll workers, partially broken seals on ballot boxes, and accessible voting units not being set-up. Spencer says improvements have been made, “There were some things we agreed upon with the grand jury and we’ve implemented them for this election.” Security is always a concern and there are guards on-duty at the main office. Workers can only access secure areas in pairs. The sheriff’s department will protect ballot box collection sites and help with transportation. Spencer expects about 75 percent of Riverside County’s one million registered voters to cast ballots. One candidate in the 42nd district State Assembly race, Democrat Greg Rodriguez, has complained about some voters reporting that they didn’t get their mail-in ballots. Spencer tells News Channel 3 that no voters have contacted them about that and the Rodriguez campaign hasn’t contacted them about the problem. Anyone who does encounter a problem with getting a mail-in ballot or any other issue should report to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office at 951-486-7200.
