Head elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez said Tuesday’s election brought out a large turnout to the polls, including a high number of voters dropping off vote-by-mail ballots in person that still must be counted.
With all polling precinct ballots counted counted, along with a majority of mail-in ballots tallied, reported turnout was at 51 percent and will experience an increase before results become official.
There are about 4,500 ballots left to count out of a total of slightly more than 18,000, according to Angela Curro, assistant county clerk-auditor-recorder. Those should be counted by Friday, she said.
Gonzalez said while the number of residents who receive vote-by-mail ballots is high, this year voters seemed to be waiting to make up their mind as many returned the ballots in person on Election Day instead of returning them by mail in advance.
He said the biggest complaint they heard from voters who arrived at the polls were from those who recently moved into San Benito County or out of San Benito County who had not re-registered.
“We had a few people who, with redistricting, were not used to going to a different place,” Gonzalez said, during a phone interview at 11:15 p.m. “It’s to be expected because of redistricting. There were some long lines, but again it has to do with the high turnout.”
Those who could not be located on registration rolls at their polling place were able to fill out a provisional ballot that will be counted after the election’s office staff can verify that the person is eligible to vote and has only cast one ballot.
“We are looking to make sure there is no possibility they voted twice,” he said.
Early on Election Day, Gonzalez said his staff members at the elections office had already counted 8,000 vote-by-mail ballots, up from the average of 5,000 they usually have completed.
“We’ve never been that far along before,” he said. “We expect a very good turnout and this morning was very busy at the polls.”
Gonzalez spent most of the day visiting precincts throughout the community to make sure things were running smoothly. At mid-afternoon, he was still out visiting polling places throughout the community.
“This year has been especially difficult with a lot of changes in the office,” Gonzalez said, noting that he has three permanent staff members, down from past years. “I don’t think they’ve had a day off in about three weeks. They haven’t been able to get off.”
His office was open last weekend to collect early ballots and he said some of his retired staff members have been volunteering their help with the election. Volunteers had tables set up outside on the walkway on the second story of the courthouse building – outside the elections office to continue collecting ballots.
“We couldn’t pull this together without them and all the poll workers,” he said.
Some poll workers turned up at their posts as early as 5:30 a.m. to prepare for the opening of the polls at 7 a.m. Gonzalez said most of them would be there until 9 or 9:30 p.m.
At least one local resident was caught off guard by a change this year that eliminated polling places for some residents and changed them to vote-by-mail ballots. One woman said she showed up at her normal polling place and was told that she was not on the roster, but that she could fill out a provisional ballot that would be counted in 10 days. Elections staff members shared the information about the change at several board meetings, and it was reported in the newspaper that some precincts would no longer have a polling place. The voters were notified on their sample ballots that a vote-by-mail ballot would arrive in a few days.
Preliminary election results are posted online at www.sbcvote.us. The results of the election posted online are not official until the official canvas of the vote has been completed.
