Friday, November 22, 2024

It is well-documented that final official election results in California take longer than other states. 

Although the state’s shift to voting by mail is a driving force, there are other reasons why the final certification of an election takes additional time in our state. 

New laws and changing voter habits have lengthened the time needed for election officials to finish certifying local elections, particularly the Presidential primary and general elections where many candidates and parties are vying for votes. Even with early voting options available throughout the state, many California voters wait until either just before Election Day or Election Day itself before casting their ballots.  

This means that while all elections are complicated, presidential elections may be doubly so. It is the job of the Yolo County Elections Office and those in other counties across the state and nation to ensure the public can have faith in the final reported election results and the methods and means it took to certify those results.  

The popularity of voting by mail requires extra verification steps that election workers must complete before counting each vote-by-mail ballot. Since the November 2020 election, 85% to 90% of Yolo County voters have utilized the vote-by-mail option to vote. 

Each signature on a vote-by-mail ballot envelope must be compared and matched with a signature on file for the voter before that ballot can even be opened. If the signature does not match, additional reviews and extra steps must be taken to try and contact the voter to cure the issue with their signature. All of this takes staff time and lengthens final certification. 

Vote-by-mail ballots received early and whose signatures were verified and the ballots that were voted at a Vote Center prior to Election Day, were included in the first batch of results released shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Night. 

By law, we must wait until 8 p.m. to tabulate and post that first batch of unofficial results.  

The updates that were provided Election Night reflect the ballots that were cast in the ballot box at a Vote Center that same day. To get those ballots to our election headquarters for processing and counting, at least two election workers safely and securely transported all those ballots back to our election headquarters for processing and counting. 

Once the final Election Day unofficial results were posted for the night, election workers spent the next day organizing and preparing for post-Election Day work to finalize results and certify the election.

The official post-Election Day period, commonly referred to as the canvass period, begins the Thursday following Election Day. State election law provides elections offices a 30-day period to certify this election. 

There are specific tasks of the canvass and associated deadlines to legally certify an election in California, all of which extends the time it takes to officially announce final results. Each step of this process ensures every legal vote is counted and counted accurately. 

Vote-by-mail ballots mailed to the elections office at the last minute can, by law, still be accepted by the elections office up to seven days following Election Day, as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. Of course, we encourage voters to mail their ballots early or drop them off at the Yolo County Ballot Drop Boxes and Vote Centers. 

In fact, California voters may return their vote-by-mail ballots to any California county official Ballot Drop Box or voting location. By law, our office can accept Yolo County vote-by-mail ballots returned in other California counties up to eight days after Election Day. All of these laws and deadlines require additional resources and time before election officials can provide certified results.

Additionally, Yolo County’s student population of some 37,000 individuals also provides a unique reward and challenge. Although Yolo County is not the only California county with college students, our county has one of the highest per capita students’ populations in the state at 16%.  

High student engagement coupled with one of the highest per capita college student populations in the state and combined with the historical trend that most student age voters typically cast their vote late in the election voting cycle, created a significant post-Election Day processing crunch for our elections office that is unique across the state. 

Another unique element of college-age voters is that they significantly increase the number of provisional/conditional votes our office must process after Election Day when compared to other counties our size.

Provisional voting has been used in California since 1984. Provisional ballots are those cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote, even though their names are not on the official voter registration list where they are voting.

This is one of the tenants of the California Voter’s Bill of Rights. The submitted Provisional Ballot will be reviewed and only counted after the elections office has confirmed that the voter is registered to vote in Yolo County and that the voter did not already vote in the election.

In 2017, Conditional Voter Registration (CVR) became available to state voters, which allows voters to register and vote the same day. The CVR ballots, just like Provisional Ballots, must be processed after all the in-person votes have been counted and all the vote-by-mail ballot envelopes have been reviewed to ensure no voter votes more than once.

Depending on the volume of these provisional and conditional ballots, this review process and need to register CVR voters to ensure there are no duplicate votes cast can take more than a week to complete. For the current November 5, 2024, General Election, Yolo County has just under 5,300 conditional and provisional ballots it is in the process of reviewing. 

Due to the requirements outlined in Assembly Bill 3184, election results cannot be certified in California until Tuesday, December 3, 2024, at the earliest. This new law establishes specific timelines and procedures for certifying election results in California. As a result of this legislation, Yolo County Elections Office anticipates certifying the November 5, 2024, General Election and providing final official election results on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.

By law, the certification date for the election must be announced with a 10-day notice during the canvass period. During this period voters who forgot to sign their vote-by-mail ballot envelope or whose signatures were challenged will have the opportunity correct their respective issue. The final cut-off for voters to resolve all such issues is two days before the election is certified. The Unsigned Identification Envelope Statement and Signature Verification Statement forms are available here: https://elections.yolocounty.gov/cure-letters. For the current election, these forms must be returned to the Elections Office by 5:00 p.m. Sunday, December 1, 2024.

As one can see, there are many legal requirements and unique conditions in Yolo County that require our office to finalize results and certify an election. Our office will continue to provide ongoing unofficial election results every Tuesday and Friday throughout the canvass period until the election is certified. The election results are published on our website at https://elections.yolocounty.gov/current-election-returns.

The elections office is committed to getting our final certified results completed accurately and as soon as possible, while ensuring all legal requirements are met and that the integrity and transparency of the election process is successfully achieved in every election.

Jesse Salinas is the Yolo County Assessor, Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters.