Riverside County Registrar of Voters staff test positive for COVID, dozens quarantined

Dozens of Riverside County Registrar of Voters employees are in quarantine after some staff members tested positive for coronavirus this week, officials confirmed on Wednesday.

All permanent and remaining temporary staff members will be tested as a precautionary measure. County spokesperson Brooke Federico told News Channel 3's Jake Ingrassia that 400 employees were tested, but most are temporary. There are about 35 full-time employees at the Registrar's office.

Test results are expected to come in by Friday or Saturday, Federico said. The building was closed on Wednesday for cleaning and disinfection.

Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer said she still expects the county to be able to certify election results by the state deadline of Dec. 3.

"It is key to our election process to ensure the Registrar of Voters employees are safe and healthy," said Riverside County Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer. "I fully expect that we will be able to certify the election by Dec. 3 and today’s testing will help the office to meet the state’s deadline."

Federico added that the holiday weekend was always available to pause counting, it just depended on how many ballots they were able to process leading up.

There are approximately 4,000 provisional ballots that still need to researched, verified, and counted.

Federico said the county is at a good point to ensure they can meet the Dec. 3 deadline.

Officials said that the manual audit of one percent of the ballots also continues to confirm that the ballot-counting machines accurately counted each ballot. Voters whose signature did not match have until Dec. 1 to return their signature curing form.

Stay with News Channel 3 for any updates.