Close races may take until December to certify, Riverside County election official says
Close races in Riverside County could take up to a month to be officially decided, Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer told the Board of Supervisors during their meeting on Tuesday.
“If it’s a close contest, if it’s within two percentage points, we don’t expect to certify until December 3,” Spencer said. That’s because the ballots that are dropped off on election day and the provisional ballots all need to be signature verified.
Spencer addressed concerns and questions from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning, including reports of people receiving multiple ballots.
“As far as voters getting two ballots,” Spencer said, “All the ones that I have researched are due to voters re-registering right around the time that we issued ballots.” The voter registration system did not immediately recognize the two registrations as a “duplicate voter” in an example Spencer described. However, the system had, within a week, merged the records.
Riverside County officials are asking the U.S. Postal Service to review what’s being called “delivery inconsistencies and irregularities.” Voter Information Guides were mailed October 2, Spencer said. Ballots were mailed starting October 5. However, Spencer reported that she herself received the guide after the ballot was delivered. She said another voter had complained of a 13-day delay in receiving the guide. The guide includes a sample ballot and candidate statements to assist voters in preparing their voting decisions. Riverside County candidate statements are available here.
1.23 million registered voters have been mailed a vote-by-mail ballot. About 150,000 ballots have already been returned, Spencer reports. “Right now, we’re in the process of signature verifying those.”
Later this week, the ballots will be opened. Next week, workers will begin scanning and counting ballots.
“We’re basically a 24-7 operation right now,” Spencer said.
Read more: Registrar: number of ballots returned almost twice what was received in 2016
The early voting period begins this weekend at the Palm Desert Westfield Mall and other locations. Voters can cast an in-person ballot or drop off a completed ballot there.
Find ballot drop-off locations by clicking here.
Voter assistance centers open October 31. They’ll be open through election day. Saturday – Monday they are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. On November 3, they will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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Voters can cast ballots by mail with the U.S. Postal Service, deliver ballots to the ballot drop off boxes, or visit a Voter Assistance Center.
For more information on how to vote, click here.
On November 3, some results will be available shortly after polls close.
“We’ll release results shortly after 8:00 on election night." Spencer says, "That would be anything turned in by Monday, the day before the election.” The first update is expected by about 8:30 p.m. Another update would happen at 9:00 p.m. That would be the midday ballot pick-up from about a third of voter assistance centers. Then, expect hourly updates through 1 a.m. Those would include votes counted as the voter assistance centers are reporting back to the registrar’s office. At around 1:00 a.m., election officials plan to switch to 2-hour updates until every in-person ballot is processed. At that point, they would change to signature verifying on ballots.
