Election Results Come In On-Time, Races Called

Votes in the November 2011 election were tallied before midnight on Tuesday for the first time in recent years, which made for a restful night for those who won and many voters.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Kari Vergil released new vote totals every hour on Tuesday with the first round of numbers released just a few minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m.

Check out the election results here.

Verjil said she made sure ballots got to Riverside for counting as soon as possible, even to go as far as having a Riverside County sheriff’s helicopter fly in the votes from Blythe.

She also kept those watching and waiting updated with the latest out of her office by using social media sites, like Facebook and an updated Twitter feed on the registrar’s website.

By midnight Tuesday all but some 5,000 ballots had been counted and recorded.

“Approximately 4,000 Vote-by-Mail, 1,000 provisional and 90 damaged ballots that require duplication still must be processed,” she announed on the website on Wednesday morning. “Work on those ballots begins (Wedensday) tomorrow. The next updated results will be posted at 6 p.m. on Thursday.”

Vergil faced some pressure from county leaders and voters for a quick turn-around on election results. Her predecessor Barbara Dunsmore was fired from the position last November because of a history of slow election returns.

ARCHIVE: Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore Fired.