UKIAH, 6/14/22 — Mendocino County election officials processed nearly 14,000 ballots over the weekend as the county reached the last day mail-in ballots would be counted.
Unofficial election results showed 3,864 registered voters’ ballots were counted as of early morning Wednesday, June 8, the day following the election. The county must accept and process all mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received by Tuesday, June 14, said Katrina Bartolomie, county assessor, clerk and recorder.
The county expects to receive almost 18,000 ballots. The office will update the unofficial election results — which reported a nearly 7.5% initial turnout on Wednesday, June 8 — in two weeks, she said. Bartolomie predicted the percentage of voters will reach 30-35%, she previously told the Voice. There are 52,602 registered voters in the county.
The election office will begin a manual tally of precinct ballots on Thursday, June 16, in accordance with California’s election code, Bartolomie said. Election officials must conduct a manual tally of votes cast in 1% of the precincts chosen at random in order to verify the accuracy of votes counted using a voting system. The precinct will be randomly chosen by a computer system.
Bartolomie will begin reviewing and processing the 347 provisional ballots cast on Election Day after the 1% manual tally is completed Thursday. Provisional ballots are submitted in person by individuals who lost their mail-in ballots or did not receive a ballot in the mail.