Election night goes smoothly for Riverside County Registrar

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil says she’s very pleased with how election night turned out.

“Staff has been working diligently over the past months to prepare for this election. So I was feeling fairly confident,” said Verjil.

She said her office completed the election night vote count by 1:15 a.m. — ahead of schedule.

“I was quite content with that finishing time,” said Verjil.

There are about 38,000 vote by mail, 7,000 provisional and 4,000 damaged ballots that still need to be processed.

This was the biggest election since Verjil took over as registrar a little more than a year ago. Back in 2010, slow election results and other mix-ups cost then-registrar Barbara Dunmore her job.

A couple of measures were taken to speed up the process this time — more ballot scanners and help from the authorities.

“We also had the sheriff’s helicopter deliver ballots from Blythe. That was something else that helped us finish counting the ballots a little faster than we have in the past,” said Verjil.

Voter turn-out, as expected in a primary, was low — only around 30 percent. That won’t be the case come November, she said, in a presidential election.

“This was a good practice run for the November election,” said Verjil.