Voters Upset Over Ballot Backup
Last-minute mail-in ballots are to blame for the backup of uncounted votes in the Riverside County Election, according to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. Voters like Warren Kassub of Palm Desert say, “Obviously they haven’t given it a lot of thought about the way they are counting them, they need to improve the process.
Other voters like Janell Hennesse are concerned saying, “You feel like it doesn’t count, I mailed it in early so I don’t know what the problem is.”
As of Friday at Noon 72,000 main-in and provisional ballots remain uncounted.
Director Barbara Dunmore says the Post Office brought 80,000 ballots on Monday and 50,000 more on Election Day.
“This election, many people that had mail-in ballots didn’t get interested in the election until the last week when candidates started hitting the airwaves and radio,” she said. “That’s when they had the mail-in ballots on their table and mailed them in at the last minute.”
On election night the amount of uncounted mail in ballots were never announced adding confusion as to who won and who lost. The Registrar does not dispute that claim and says in the future changes will be made to lessen the confusion.
“There will be a change this November, along with the results of the ballots brought in from the polling sites,” she said. “We’ll also include the amount of outstanding mail-in ballots that have not been counted.”
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On Wednesday night, Dunmore’s office told News Channel 3 106,000 mail-in ballots remained uncounted. This could possibly change the outcome on some of the local candidate races and city tax measures.
Temporary crews will be working around the clock in shifts in order to get the votes counted as soon as possible.
“Like a lot of machines, its not good to let them get cold, these won’t (cool down) for the next at least 48 hours,” said Wayne Beckham who manages the counting.
The Riverside County Registrars Office expects to have all votes counted by Friday afternoon.
