San Rafael, CA – As of Monday afternoon, as many as 1,450 Marin County ballots were left to tally from the November 6 Statewide General Election – approximately 700 of which consisted of remaining signature verification issues.
Consistent with recent state legislation (Senate Bill 759), Marin voters who submitted ballots with signature issues were notified by mail and have until 5 p.m. Wednesday, November 28, to verify their signature and have their votes counted.
Marin County Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts said there were 1,074 ballots that either lacked a signature on the vote-by-mail envelope or had a signature that did not match the one on record with the Elections Department. Up to 700 of these could still be received by Wednesday afternoon.
Senate Bill 759 was just signed in September 2018, enacted as an urgency statute. Previously, elections officials were prohibited from opening a ballot envelope and tallying the results if signatures did not favorably compare. The law now requires elections officials to notify the voter and allow the voter an opportunity to verify his or her signature before certification of the election. The voter must sign a verification form and then return it to the Elections Department by email, fax, mail, or in person.
Elections staff has posted updated election results several times per week since election night and worked weekends and some holidays to complete the tally. Updated results will be posted by 5 p.m. Wednesday and Friday afternoon this week. By law, the elections team has until December 6 to certify and report final election results to the Secretary of State, though staff anticipate completing that process sooner.
Additional information about election results reporting and processing vote-by-mail and provisional ballots can be found on the California Secretary of State’s website.
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