LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office reported Friday that thousands of ballots are still to be counted in the weeks ahead as the official election canvass takes place.
Approximately 7,919 ballots remain to be counted, according to Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley.
Statewide, as of the end of business on Friday, the California Secretary of State's Office said 2.4 million ballots are yet to be processed for the presidential primary.
Thousands of vote-by-mail or absentee ballots were mailed out to Lake County voters early in May. Beginning on May 17, Fridley and her staff began processing the absentees returned to the elections office on a rolling basis.
Fridley said absentees that arrived at her office by June 1 were added to the precinct ballots cast on Tuesday, making up the preliminary vote count.
However, as is customary, thousands of ballots – primarily absentees but also provisionals – still remain to be counted, she reported.
Still to be tallied are those absentee ballots that were mailed in as late as Tuesday and had to arrive in Fridley's office no later than Friday to be counted, according to Fridley.
Fridley said the breakdown of the remaining 7,919 ballots to be counted is as follows:
– Vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail and received between June 2 and June 7: 4,144.
– Vote-by-mail ballots returned by mail from military and overseas voters: 64.
– Vote-by-mail ballots received at the elections office counter between June 2 and June 7: 730.
– Vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day: 1,722.
– Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before June 7 and received by June 10: 426.
– Provisional ballots: 833.
Fridley explained that provisional ballots may be entirely counted, partially counted or not counted.
After the election has been certified, provisional voters may contact the Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372 to find out if their vote was counted and, if not, why it was not counted.
Fridley also offered a breakdown of ballots remaining to be counted by supervisorial district and Measure U, the Kelseyville Unified School District's bond measure:
– Supervisorial District 1: 1,813.
– Supervisorial Districts 2 and 3: 2,339.
– Supervisorial District 4: 1,912.
– Supervisorial District 5: 1,855.
– School Bond Measure “U”: 1,753.
The 7,919 ballots that remain to be counted surpasses the numbers reported in the previous two primaries of note – the June 2014 primary, which has 6,053 still to be counted during the official canvass, and the June 2010 primary, which had 3,766 absentees and provisionals that had not been counted on election night, as Lake County News has reported.
For comparison, the recent numbers also are higher than the November 2014 election, which included supervisorial and other county races, when 5,536 ballots were counted during the canvass; and the 4,500 ballots that were tallied in the canvass in November 2010. A comparative count for November 2012 wasn't immediately available.
Once the count is final, the overall voter turnout picture is expected to significantly improve. The preliminary turnout estimate was 27.6 percent.
Fridley's office has 28 days during the official canvass period to finalize the count and certify the election results to the state.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Thousands of Lake County ballots left to count during canvass period
- Elizabeth Larson
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