{"id":7944,"date":"2018-06-07T17:50:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T00:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=7944"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:51:44","slug":"high-number-of-uncounted-ballots-causes-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2018\/06\/07\/high-number-of-uncounted-ballots-causes-alarm\/","title":{"rendered":"High Number of Uncounted Ballots Causes Alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cris Alarcon]<\/em><\/p>\n

As the State moves to a Vote-by-Mail system to replace local area polling places, changes in how those vote counts are reported causes confusion, and maybe unintentional deception. \u00a0Over 2\/5 of all ballots were left out of the counts reported late election night. \u00a0This means that the margin-of-error in many races makes the races too close to call. \u00a0As more ballots are added to the votes counted this week, the numbers\u00a0and possible outcomes of several races many also change. \u00a0In many ways this is an effect of changing the manner that we vote. \u00a0The State has decided that for convenience, and cost-saving, to move to an all vote-by-mail system in the near future. \u00a0This migration has caused much of the change we see that is causing concerns this election.<\/p>\n

Originally all voter went to local voting “Polling Places” to vote. \u00a0As some voters were too disable to make it to the voting location (or were out of the area on voting day), an “Absentee Ballot” system was made so votes could be mailed. \u00a0In an effort to increase voter participation, the convenience of voting by mail was made into a standard goal, rather than an option. \u00a0Lately we have succeeded in many more votes being cast by mail than just a few years ago. \u00a0But some unpredicted consequences have come from this change.<\/p>\n

In modern time we have used both mail, and Polling Places to collect votes. \u00a0Votes by mail must be postmarked by election day, but might be days later before delivered to the Elections Department. \u00a0For those that are delivered before the prime-time of voting day are processed, but those vote totals are kept secret until after the voting time is over. \u00a0For those that arrive by mail a few days before voting day, and those that come on or after voting day, are counted after all the votes cast on voting day at the regular Polling Place are counted.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0unexpected anomaly that has been observed is that there is an option to drop-off a vote-by-mail ballot (already filled out) at the Polling Places, or even at the County Elections department, and that option has been exercised by an unusually high percentage of voters. \u00a0Those ballots are grouped with other last-minute Mailed ballots and counted last.<\/p>\n

On Election night the first vote numbers announced are those Mailed in ballots that came in the prior weeks that have already been counted. \u00a0Those are announced shortly after the voting ends around 9pm. \u00a0As soon as the Polls close, the polling place election workers count the voted ballots and the number of people that signed in and other verification processes and then package up the ballots and drive them to the elections department. \u00a0This takes about an hour or so (Longer for Tahoe and EDH ballots). \u00a0When they get to Elections they are put into counting machines and that goes fast. \u00a0This election that was done and those numbers were added to prior announced votes reported about midnight.<\/p>\n

The Mail ballots dropped off, the “Provisional” votes [special cases needing extra verification] and all the Mail ballots that came in the last few days now start to be counted. \u00a0This is added to the “Election Night Totals” that were announced about midnight on voting day. \u00a0When all this is done, we get a “Certified” vote count. \u00a0Most “late reported” votes are Mail votes arriving at the last minute, then Mail ballots dropped off at Election night. \u00a0Sometime people forget to sign the outside of their Mail votes and Elections officials will contact the voter to tell them and allow them to come to Election and sign the outside so it cone be verified and counted. I have seen Election make extraordinary efforts to make sure that every valid vote is counted.<\/p>\n

So why does the vote count seem so off today? \u00a0About 30,000 votes were received in the mail the weeks before, and at the Polling Places on Election night and were reported in the “Election Night Report.”\u00a0 Those were reported and the difference in many races was just a few 1,000s of votes or less. \u00a0It was not made clear in that “Election Night Report” about the remaining ballots to be counted. \u00a0This is normal and not usually any issue as the numbers of remaining ballots are low and seldom change anything. \u00a0But as we push to higher numbers of Mail ballot votes, we see more “Late” reported votes as I described above. \u00a0In this election that number was greater than 20,000 ballots. \u00a0So the remaining ballots to be counted may very well change the outcome of some races. \u00a0This is not unheard of, but seems to be seen in much great degree as we change the manner in which\u00a0we vote.<\/p>\n

The following statement can be attributed to William Schultz, El Dorado County\u2019s Recorder Clerk and head of the elections department:<\/h2>\n

\u201cAt approximately midnight on election day, June 5th, the Elections Department provided online results of the primary election based on the number of votes counted at that time. As is common, both in El Dorado County and nearly every County throughout the State, there are ballots that were received and remain to be verified and counted after that first official notice of results is provided.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we indicate a precinct has \u201creported,\u201d it simply means that the ballots within that precinct have been received by our office, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we have nearly 23,000 ballots that will be verified and counted. These remaining ballots are comprised of ballots received from polling place ballots, drop-off centers and mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the scrutiny and care with which we verify each ballot, the entire process from a voter turning in their ballot to a final count includes multiple steps and takes significant time. Final results are not required to be submitted to the Secretary of State until 30 days after an election. We have never missed a deadline and we do our best to be timely within the process, but not at the expense of errors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that there remain a sizeable percentage of uncounted votes less than 48 hours after an election is common and is not something for the voting public to be concerned about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is little more sacred in this County, this State and this nation than the right to vote. Every single person involved in the process is diligent in their responsibility and dedicated to the transparent, fair and legal outcome of each election.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office has historically provided twice-weekly updates during the 30 days following an election until all ballots are counted and certified. We continue that process now and encourage citizens to be patient and check our website for updates here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.edcgov.us\/Government\/Elections<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cris Alarcon] As the State moves to a Vote-by-Mail system to replace local area polling places, changes in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7945,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7944\/revisions\/7945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}