Paula Peterson
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Full house of employees tabulating ballots and voters at the front counter -
L-R Tom McHatton, a veteran of 4 elections and Jim Owen who has worked on election day for 6 years. -
Retiring Recorder Clerk William Schultz -
L-R Sue Wilson and Candice Hughes counting ballots on Tuesday -
Map of precincts in El Dorado County -
One of many stacks of ballots waiting to be processed -
The mail room where 5000 ballots came through on Monday -
For days the employees of the El Dorado County elections department have been busy processing thousands of mail-in ballots for the November 6 election.
On election day the Placerville office was full of energy and activity as stacks of ballots were processed, lines of voters were out the door and a non-stop line of cars waited to drop off their ballot outside the office.
“The turnout is just fantastic,” El Dorado County Recorder-Clerk William Schultz told South Tahoe Now.
On Tuesday, Schultz stood outside the elections office on Fairlane Court in Placerville, watching an endless stream of cars pulling up to the mailbox.
“I’ve never seen this much activity,” added Schultz who stood outside for two hours.
And the activity kept strong indoors too.
The office normally has a staff of six full-time employees, but today that number jumped to 26 with an additional 12 heading in for the nighttime shift.
They expect to have a final count of precincts by 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, then the office will fill up again at 7:00 a.m. for a count of provisional ballots and the rest of the mail-in ballots.
The 85-year-old Schultz is overseeing his last election for the county as he is retiring. Not only has he been the elected recorder-clerk, but he was also the registrar of voters and Veterans Services director. The Board of Supervisors voted earlier this year to hire a registrar of voters.
At the helm of the elections department since 2004, Schultz has seen all types of elections from special elections to presidential races.