Finals results of South Lake Tahoe election could be known by Friday

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The final count of ballots for the November 6th election might be done as soon as Friday, November 30, 2018 though its not guaranteed. With just 47 votes separating the "yes" and the "no" votes on Measure T in South Lake Tahoe, many are anxiously awaiting the results. El Dorado County has 30 days from the election to send the certified election results to the State of California.

The main reason behind the length of time it's taking for the vote to be counted is the number of provisional ballots turned in by voters. The process to count these votes is a much longer one than if a voter went right into the polling place to cast their ballot or mail it in prior to the election.

Voters that request a mail-in ballot but don't mail them in prior to election day and just drop them off at a polling place are the ones that create the provisional ballots.

The process to count provisionals is a long one with many requirements:
- Signatures on the completed ballot are checked with the signature on file
- Elections staff must verify the person turning the ballot in is not registered in another county and did not vote elsewhere
- The ballot is extracted. It has been found that many voters went to wrong polling place, have staff has to pull the ballot and put into the right area
- Check ballot to make sure they can be run through the tabulators

There were 2600 provisional ballots submitted on election night and 600 conditional ballots. The conditional voters missed the October 22 deadline to register and had to go into the local office to do so. Most of them waited until election night to register and then vote.

Linda Webster, the assistant registrar of voters for the County said they have been seeing a big increase in the number of provisional ballots. She said many hold onto their ballots, perhaps unsure who they are voting for and then just drop them off at the polling place.

Some voters who mailed in their ballot but forgot to sign the envelope it came in were send postcards to verify their vote and identity. The yellow and salmon cards are due back two days before the election is certified which might be Friday. Want to check on your ballot status? Check it out here: https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov, or call the County Elections office at (530) 621-7480. The cards can be faxed or emailed.

Though not required, Webster said their staff has already double-counted the Measure T votes by hand along with the machine count. Any registered California voter may request a recount of votes in a statewide contest as long as they pay for it. There is no provision in California law to require an “automatic recount” in any election contest.

"When certified, we are going to be sure those numbers are accurate and will hold up in a recount," said Webster.