Almost 23,000 uncounted ballots in El Dorado County

El Dorado County Elections official are still counting some 23,000 "Vote By Mail" ballots that were either sent in close to election day, or dropped off at polling places Tuesday.

This isn't an abnormal number but one that often catches many by surprise.

During those late counts of ballots in 2014, the final two candidates for the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors for Area 5 changed from election day, sending Sue Novasel and Kenny Curtzwiler to the November election. As of Tuesday, the same two appear to be headed to November's ballot.

During every major election there are thousands of "Vote by Mail" ballots dropped off at polling places instead of being mailed, according to William Schultz, the County's Recorder-Clerk-Registrar.

The procedures are much different in how the elections office can process ballots.

From 10 days prior to Election Day until 5:00 p.m. that night, "Vote by Mail" ballots received by that time are allowed to be processed and counted, and those figures are released shortly after the polls close at 8:00 p.m.

That program is then closed, and the program to count precinct ballots is then opened. Both types of ballots cannot be counted at the same time.

Once the precinct vote count is completed and staff returns to the office the next day, they proceed with the process of preparing all the "Vote by Mail" ballots from each polling place location.

"This entails a lot of time opening and proofing each ballot for unreadable marks, soiling or other problems we encounter with a ballot," said Schultz. "This is always done by a team of two people, for accuracy and security. Once those are done, they are prepped for the actual counting procedure through our tabulating machines. So, then we begin the actual counting procedure, which also can take some time for the thousands of ballots received."

Some of that procedure included checking signatures on the mailed in ballot to the voter's original registration card.

Current Election Code requires the elections department to hold off on that count until the Friday after election day because a "Vote by Mail" ballot that turns out to be postmarked by 8:00 p.m. election day must be counted if received by that Friday.

Some "Vote By Mail" ballots arrive in a condition that requires extra attention, including tears and soiling. And sometimes the voter does not sign the envelope. The Election Department is required to send a notice or try to contact that person and then the person has eight days to verify their signature with the Election Dept.

But, it isn't just the "Vote By Mail" ballots that cause a slow down in the final count. When the elections department indicates a precinct has 'reported,' it simply means that the ballots within that precinct have been received by the department, but not that every ballot has been verified and counted. That
process is a transparent, secure and thorough process that takes a varying amount of time depending on the number and type of ballots received.

"As you can see, there are many reasons why it takes longer than it used to for determining the final ballot count," Schultz told South Tahoe Now.

Historically Schultz's department has released updated counts twice a week before the maximum of 30 days after an election they are allowed to get a final count submitted. He said they will continue with that procedure.

"We have never missed a deadline and we do our best to be timely within the process, but not at the expense of errors," added Schultz.

Updated ballot counts can be seen here: https://www.edcgov.us/Government/Elections