San Rafael, CA – Marin County’s Registrar of Voters, Lynda Roberts, has certified the November 8 General Election and the official results have been posted online. The certification will be presented December 13 to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, which is required to accept the canvass of votes and declare the results of the election for races over which it has jurisdiction.
Members of the Elections Department staff watch Registrar Lynda Roberts sign the document that completes the November 8 General Election.The election had 160,795 registered voters of which 143,041 voted, resulting in nearly an 89 percent turnout that exceeds the 87 percent turnout in 2012.
Was the turnout in Marin the best in the state? Roberts said it could be, “but we won’t find out until the Secretary of State publishes the statement of vote on December 16.”
However, Roberts said this election broke several records when compared with the past two presidential elections in Marin County — including number of registered voters, number of ballots cast, number of vote-by-mail ballots returned, number of overseas voters, and number of provisional ballots.
“All of this translated in to a lot more work to be done by our staff during the 28-day canvass period,” Roberts said. “Our team of full-time and extra-hire employees worked long days and weekends to meet the deadline to certify. Without this level of commitment we never would have finished on time, and I thank each person for their dedication and hard work.”
A few interesting figures emerged as Roberts’ staff took full inventory after the election. Most notably:
- 68 of Marin’s 161 precincts had a turnout of 90 percent or higher
- Supervisorial District 2 (Ross Valley, parts of San Rafael and nearby unincorporated areas) had the most precincts with a turnout of more than 90 percent
- The precinct with the highest turnout was at Ross Valley Fire Station No. 20 in San Anselmo with 93.88 percent; the second highest was in Woodacre with 93.67 percent; the third highest was in Mill Valley with 93.35 percent
- Aside from the 21 mail-only precincts with 250 registered voters or less, the highest vote-by-mail turnout was a precinct in Greenbrae with 72.96 percent
- The average turnout for mail-only precincts was 76 percent
- Returned vote-by-mail ballots increased from 88,109 in the November 2012 presidential election to 100,442 in this election
- Overseas voters (including military) increased from 1,911 in the 2012 election to 2,809 in this election
- The youth vote (ages 18-24) increased from 6,825 in the 2012 election to 8,177 in this election
- The number of registered voters in Marin went down slightly between 2008 and 2012 (155,640 vs. 155,025) but grew to 160,795 in this election
- Of the six qualified write-in presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders received 78 percent of the votes
Roberts also thanked the 750 civic-minded people who assisted with Election Day operations by managing polling places, troubleshooting problems and delivering equipment to the Civic Center on election night. “We wouldn’t be able to have polling places without this level of citizen involvement,” Roberts said.
Now that the season of presidential elections has come to a close, the staff will have time to catch up on other projects before preparing for the November 2017 local election.
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