San Rafael, CA – Ballot counting continued this week for the June 7 Primary Election, and the Marin County Elections Department expects to have all but provisional ballots counted by this Friday, June 17. Only about 15,000 vote-by-mail ballots need to be counted. Updated results will be posted on our results page by 5 p.m. that day.
Nearly 31,000 ballots were left to count after Election Day, including provisional ballots, vote-by-mail ballots dropped at polling places, and vote-by-mail ballots delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
“We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls about the number of ballots left to count,” said Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts. “In the two or three days following an election, we have many tasks to accomplish so we can start the official canvass, and processing ballots for counting is just one of those. It takes a few days to prepare the ballots before running them through the counting machine.”
Uncounted provisional ballots, which number about 5,700, will be processed last. “There is a lot of confusion about provisional ballots, and I’ve seen misinformation swirling around on the internet,” Roberts said. “We process provisional ballots last to ensure that a person did not already vote at the polls or by mail.” Information about provisional voting is on the Elections Department website under “frequently asked questions.”
Part of the official canvass includes a manual tally of one percent of the ballots tabulated to verify the accuracy of the automated count.
The random selection of one percent of the precincts to be tallied will take place at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 22, in the Marin County Elections Department, located in Suite 121, Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael. The process is open to the public.
More information about canvass procedures or the manual tally is on on our website under Election Information, Policies and Procedures. Follow the Elections Department on Facebook.