- a weekly column published in the Pioneer Press

At 8 p.m. last Tuesday evening, Elections Assistant Crystal Repass formally announced “the polls are now closed!” Elections observers and reporters hovered near the computerized vote counting system to watch the modems blink red lights and whir as reports were electronically transferred from Siskiyou County’s 83 precincts. By 8:20 p.m., votes had been tallied. The elections teams throughout the County did a fantastic job!

From August to the September deadline, 356 new voters registered to claim their civil right to vote – including several young adults who had just turned 18. More than 59% of the County’s 26,125 voters showed up at the polls. There were even votes from Siskiyou  folks stationed in the military that arrived via fax.

Earlier that evening, County Clerk Colleen Baker escorted observers on a tour of the system. Absentee and mail in votes may be entered into the system within seven days prior to the election. First, the bar code on the envelope is scanned. This calls up a picture of the voter’s signature on the computer. The signature on the ballot envelope is then compared with the picture to verify the voter’s identity.

The precinct roster is noted when an absentee ballot has been requested. If an absentee voter subsequently shows up to the polls, the precinct calls to verify that the voter has not already sent in a mail in ballot. If, for some reason, the eligibility of a voter cannot be immediately determined, they are allowed to cast a “provisional” vote. This is specially noted by a pink envelope. Later, when the final counting or “canvassing” is done, the Clerk will determine eligibility and whether the vote may be counted.

The ballots are printed on special paper. The Clerk must request stock from the Secretary of State and there is a strict control on counts. Only the Clerk has access to the system that designs the local ballot. This is then electronically transmitted to a specially licensed printer. The ballot is proofed six times before it goes to the printer and three times after it comes back. All unused ballots are accounted for.

Voting machines used at the precinct vary, but I was assured that there are absolutely, positively no chads. Some precincts even have a “touch screen” system for the disabled or those with difficulty using other systems. All machines print out a paper trail of the vote cast.

From 90 to 30 days prior to the election, a variety of tests are run on the machines for logic and accuracy. Pre-marked “decks” are used to ensure the machine counts are identical to the predetermined test tallies. Officers from the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office and the Sheriff’s Department were allowed to run independent tests using the decks.   

After signature verification, the absentee or mail in ballot is separated from the envelope with the voter’s information face down for privacy. The number of envelopes and the number of ballots must match. Count controls are made frequently throughout the process.

After receipt, the ballot is fed into an optical scanner for reading and counting. Mailed ballots were counted up to 2 p.m. that afternoon. Just before the polls closed, Assistant County Treasurer Wayne Hammar made a special trip to the post office box to ensure that all mail ballots had been collected. Those received after 2 p.m., but prior to the closing of the polls, would be included in the next morning’s preliminary tally. Observers watched as a special “ender” card was fed through the machine to close out the count. The wire seal was then snipped and the computer memory card with the counting information was removed.

The memory cards were inserted into the ballot counting machine. In a matter of minutes, the computer showed that mail in and absentee votes had been tallied. Soon, the 82 precincts downloaded their counts through the telephone lines.     

Initial reports of the tallies were made to the State. The County Clerk will have up to 28 days maximum to complete the canvas  or official audit of the election. The County Supervisors have an additional seven days to approve the results and send them on to the Secretary of State. Then the Secretary has four days to certify election results.

It is my understanding that, barring legal challenge, the latest that the new governor can be sworn into office is November 16. The governor has control over 1,100 appointments to top state jobs, including the 13 Cabinet members, dozens of department heads, hundreds of deputies and top state executives. The governor must also submit a balanced budget proposal to the Legislature by January 10.