You’ve Voted, Right? Here’s How We’ll See Results in San Diego
Same day results for San Diego County will likely include a significantly higher percentage of votes cast than in past years, thanks to increased vote by mail participation, according to Registrar of Voters, Michael Vu.
In recent years early results, usually posted shortly after 8pm, have not included as many as 45% of the total votes pending verification and tabulation of in person ballots. This year Vu believes the initial results will include as many as 80% of ballots cast.
Updated results for the first 24 hours will be released throughout the day on Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, November 5 thru Friday, November 13, reports will be posted daily at www.sdvote.com at 5pm. Results after that date will be posted as needed, depending on the number of ballots to be counted and the closeness of any given contest..
This information comes via a memo, currently being circulated to candidates, political parties and other stakeholders, providing a game plan for releasing voting results.
It’s a welcome act of transparency during a period where assorted bad actors (Republicans, conspiracy prone nihilists, and foreign powers with a vested interest in destabilizing the country) have engaged in spreading disinformation designed to undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
Early results reports posted in San Diego will include ballots cast in person at legitimate polling locations during the three days prior to November 3. The sometimes misleading information on Precincts Reported will no longer be included along with early counts on the registrar’s website and press releases. (That information will be conveyed as it becomes available via email and updates on @sdvote on Twitter.)
Ballots not included in the initial election night results include:
Late arriving mail ballots, which --provided they’re postmarked by Nov 3-- can be counted up to 17 days after polling places close. While many of these tardy arrivals in the past have been overseas military ballots, this year’s dismantling of the U.S Postal Service may also have an impact.
Ballots that are unsigned or bearing questionable signature matches, can be “cured” by voters (after notification) until up to two days prior to certification (December 3) of the election results.
Provisional ballots, mostly from people who show up at polling places without the ballot mailed to them or show up at the wrong location. Also included in this category are people voting who took advantage of the ability to register on the days of the election. Because these ballots must be hand counted, they are likely to be some of the last ones reported. (But they will be counted upon verification of eligibility.)
Damaged ballots need to be recreated to be read by scanner equipment. This is also a labor intensive process leading to later reporting of those votes.
Write In Votes need to be manually reviewed to ensure the names written in are qualified by the registrar’s office as write-in candidates. So writing in Donald Duck for dogcatcher just means your ballot gets counted later.
Once ballots are initially counted, the 572 voting precincts in San Diego County are reconciled. The registrar’s office says there will be a manual tally of 1% of precincts and mail ballot batches.
By law. final certified results must be posted by December 3.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news, it’s probable you’ve seen reporting on claims/threats by President Trump demanding that results be posted on election day.
That ain’t happening, no matter how hard he pontificates, because a) it’s not possible, b) states are vested with the power to regulate voting and, c) historical precedent.
Republicans have engaged in a shameful all out effort to limit voter participation in this election. Expect lots of stories about lawsuits being reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Based on my reading of those decisions already made, the justices are reluctant to intervene in cases where state statutes are directly in play. They are, however, not so clear about cases stemming from decisions made by officials in the executive branch of state government.
One prediction making the social media rounds (where everybody is a legal expert, of course) holds that the closeness of the election will influence the court’s willingness to intervene on the side of Republicans.
So, if you haven’t voted already, get yourself to the ballot box so we can run up the margins.
Need help voting? Here are a dozen ways to learn what you need to know quickly.
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Here’s a video of a Trump speech revealing his latest delusions about California:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1321548174427852801?s=20
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