Joe Paul Gonzalez, the county clerk-auditor-recorder, 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.
Gonzalez said while the number of voters 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.
The office had counted 75 percent of the ballots by 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, with about 4,500 vote-by-mail and provisional ballots yet to count. Staff members said they anticipated having those votes counted by 5 p.m. Friday.
Gonzalez said the biggest complaint elections officials heard from voters who arrived at the polls was from those who had 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 that night. “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 rosters at their polling place could fill out provisional ballots that will be counted after the election’s office staff verifies they are eligible to vote and have cast only 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. There will end up being well over a majority of votes cast through mail as opposed to the polls this year.
“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 on Tuesday.
“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. and 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 the person to vote-by-mail. 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 within 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 ballot 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.
