El Dorado County still needs to count over 23,000 votes

The election was seven days ago, but the final ballots cast in El Dorado County have yet to be tabulated, and it might not be until Friday for the results of over 20,000 ballots are released. Another 3,000 provisional ballots should be counted by Monday.

As of 5:00 p.m. November 15, the 20,000 ballots were about to be scanned.

Election officials with the County said the delay is due to the large number of vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at precincts instead of being put in the mail. When voters drop off the ballot, there is a legal process the elections department must follow including verifying each signature.

There are 116,459 registered voters in El Dorado County, so the uncounted votes equal approximately 20 percent of the total that could possibly be cast. For the City of South Lake Tahoe there are 1,262 ballots uncounted, 839 vote-by-mail ballots and 423 provisional ballots.

The only other time the elections department saw this many ballots dropped off at precincts was in 2008 when President Obama was elected to his first term.

Lake Tahoe Unified School Board President Barbara Bannar said the lack of final results is frustrating as they needed to give the outgoing board members recognition at their November 15 meeting. Incumbent Dr. Michael Doyle is behind his opponent Bonnie Turnbull by just 64 votes in Area 3, and Larry Reilly leads Annie Davidson by 100 votes in Area 1:

LTUSD
Area 1
Larry Reilly 739
Annie Davidson 639

Area 3
Bonnie Turnbull 856
Dr. Michael Doyle 792

On the South Lake Tahoe City Council side, uncounted votes could change the results. As of now, Brooke Laine and Jason Collin are the two leaders, but with just 54 votes between Tamara Wallace and Collin, the outcome could change. Incumbent JoAnn Conner is 401 behind Collin.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, outgoing Councilman Hal Cole was honored for his service, but since the election isn't finalized, Conner will be honored at their next meeting should the results stay the same.

SLT City Council

The results as of November 9. The top two will become City Council members:

Brooke Laine 1887
Jason Collin 1413
Tamara Wallace 1359
JoAnn Conner 1012
Ted Long 968
Danny McLaughlin 566
John Shearer 556
Harold "Trey" Riddle 234
Robert Topel 223
Patrick Jarrett 205

Over at South Tahoe Public Utility District, uncounted votes should not change the outcome (top two vote getters win):
Randy Vogelgesang 4076
Kelly Sheehan 3184
Nick Exline 2212
Kirk David 1986

Lake Tahoe Community College District
Area 4
Nancy Dalton 927
David Hamilton 687

Lake Valley Fire Protection District
Top 3 win
Leona Allen 1796
John Rice 1671
Robert Bettencourt 1392
Tony Sears 1108

Election officials said if voters can't mail in their ballot it is better for everyone to wait in line at the polling place and submit ballots. Poll workers verify signatures as the voters enter the booth, reducing the amount of time those in Placerville spend verifying thousands at a time.

The County was also still receiving mail in ballots on Monday, November 14. These were postmarked on election day, but the State gave those ballots until Monday to get in due to the Veterans Day holiday. The County has to submit those numbers to the Secretary of State by Thursday.