El Dorado County Elections Department

Wonder what we do in "off election years?" Well, there are no "off years." Today is Election Day for a small community election and ballots were mailed out 29 days ago and will be counted and results posted tonight. We also have been processing petitions for the past several months. We will be reviewing and certifying over 45,000 signatures for three different petitions due by April 22. It's a busy election year, just the way we like it!

Today we celebrated Joe Zitzelberger who is retiring after 35 years with the County and 30 years in elections. He has been the longest serving and most influential election employee for 3 decades. His integrity and commitment is beyond reproach. He has earned an amazing retirement leaving a legacy we will continue. We have named the ballot tabulation room after Joe. We will miss him. "No Ballot Left Behind."

There have been several questions and concerns about our cost to conduct a recount and comments that the cost seems to be excessive. I want to make sure people understand there is no automatic trigger for a recount based on margins. Additionally, we are stewards of public funds, therefore we must ensure that we recoup costs associated with a recount. We cannot spend taxpayer funds for this. We are required to charge only the direct costs of the recount while meeting the stat...utory requirements. We are required to have a certain number of voters on the boards and follow all statutory recount requirements. We had 118,113 ballots cast that are in @ 20,000 batches. We have to pull @5,500 ballots out of those batches and follow all procedures to ensure those ballots are accounted for, labeled, and placeholders put into the batch. We treat every ballot as irreplaceable because it cannot be replaced. After pulling those ballots we use a team of 5 people with Elections department oversight and count those @5,500 ballots by hand. It is a very detailed, thorough and regulated process that takes significant time. We estimated 11 days for the process. In the end it could take more or less time and we only charge for the exact costs. All candidates and the public are invited to our required manual audit to see how the process works and the accuracy of the system so they can understand the recount process. We had a candidate observe some of this process. We work hard to work with candidates, and keep the costs down while taking the process very seriously, but we have to be responsible to all parties, candidates, and taxpayers. This is not a money making process in any way for the County or the department. As always if there are any questions or concerns please call us. 530-621-7480.

With the increase of COVID cases and the renewed state requirements the elections department will be accepting visitors via appointment only. Please contact our office to set up an appointment. We will also work to accept walk ins as long as we can ensure proper health distancing with limited visitors. 530-621-7480

The November Presidential Election has been certified. The final results can be found in the link below. https://www.edcgov.us/Government//Documents/20201103.11.pdf

UPDATED 11/18/20 5pm. 2 ballots left to tabulate plus any received by Friday, November 20 @ 5pm. https://www.edcgov.us/Government//Documents/20201103.10.pdf

UPDATED 11/109/20 4pm. (Next update Thursday, 11/12 by 5pm) 1) Provisionals (165): a. In process. 2) CVR - same-day registration (1,076):... a. In process, approximately 25% complete. b. Currently 84% acceptance rate. 3) Military and Overseas: a. Complete and Tabulated. 4) Second Issue: a. Complete and Tabulated. 5) Late mail postmarked by November 3rd: a. Received ~100 from other Counties b. 2 from USPS today. c. Complete and Tabulated today. See more

UPDATED 11/9/20 4pm. See below. We have approximately 961 ballots ready for tabulation tomorrow. There will be a new results report issued tomorrow by 5pm that will include those ballots. 1) Provisionals (review, then tabulate) -- 165 - in process 2) CVR (same-day registration - review, then tabulate) -- 1,076 - In process, approximately 20% complete. 3) Military and Overseas (duplicate and tabulate) -- ~225 - Complete, ready for tabulate.... 4) Second Issue (review, then tabulate) -- ~ 700 - Complete, ready for tabulate. 4) Late mail postmarked by November 3rd -- unknown but accepted until November 20th. Received from USPS and other counties. - Ready for tabulate See more

NOTE: UPDATED 11/6/20 5pm. We have counted all in-person and mail ballots. We have to review and process Provisionals and CVR as well as second issue and duplicate overseas. The verification of Provisional and CVR ballots is very time consuming so there will not be an update until mid to late next week. Below is a breakdown of the ballots remaining that need review or duplication. 1) Provisionals (review, then tabulate) -- 165 2) CVR (same-day registration - review, then tabu...late) -- 1,076 3) Military and Overseas (duplicate and tabulate) -- ~225 4) Second Issue (review, then tabulate) -- ~ 500 5) Late mail postmarked by November 3rd -- unknown but accepted until November 20th. See more

Today we opened and tabulated 16,320 ballots. The results are on our website. We have approximately 9,200 to tabulate tomorrow. We will then start the review and tabulation of provisional and CVR ballots. There are approximately 1,200 of those. https://www.edcgov.us/Go/Elections/Documents/20201103.6.pdf

NOTE: There are approximately 25,000 ballots remaining to be counted, primarily from Election Day drop offs. We have completed the signature verification of all ballots, except those awaiting correction. We have opened and are preparing ballots and will have an update Thursday 11/5 @ 5pm which will include approximately 10,000 more ballots. There will be another update on Friday 11/6 @ 5pm. We will provide an update every day (except weekends) when we tabulate at least 5K additional ballots. We will certify within the 28 days prescribed by election code.

IMPORTANT! Voting in Person? PLEASE NO ELECTIONEERING within 100ft of a Vote Center or Drop Box! This includes bumper stickers or flags on vehicles within 100 ft. Below is a complete description of Electioneering: (Elec. Code, 18370.) Electioneering includes, but is not limited to: (1) a display of a candidate’s name, likeness, or logo; (2) a display of a ballot measure’s number, title, subject, or logo; (3) a display of buttons, hats, pencils, pens, shirts, signs, or stick...ers containing electioneering information; (4) the dissemination of audible electioneering information; and (5) at vote by mail ballot drop boxes, loitering near or disseminating visible or audible electioneering information. (Elec. Code, 319.5.) While the display of a candidate’s name, likeness, or logo on voter’s clothingsuch as a hat, t-shirt or buttonconstitutes electioneering prohibited under the law, the display of a political movement or campaign slogan on clothingwithout inclusion of the name, likeness, or logo of a candidatedoes not constitute electioneering. You will be asked to remove or cover the item. Please comply, it is a misdemeanor if you do not.

Want to see how we open and extract ballots? How we prepare and tabulate them? Here is the second video in our series on how we handle your ballots. We're not professional videographers so be kind :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2IWkEp1Sk

Voting in person? 13 VOTE CENTERS GRAND OPENING on OCTOBER 31. Come in early and avoid the long lines. Please be patient at the vote centers. We expect and are preparing for record turn out which will mean lines. We had added people and equipment to every vote center to serve the influx of voters but we are also limited with space to allow for social distancing. We are working hard to keep every worker and voter safe. One part of our COVID safety protocols is to have Roman from Sacramento Disinfecting Services thoroughly clean and sanitizes our office each night. He will be doing the same at ever Vote Center prior to opening this Saturday October 31 and every night after they close.

Want to know how we handle your mail ballot? Watch this video. As part of our commitment to transparency we have created this video to show the first part of the process for handling your mail ballot. Watch for future installments and ask us for specific topics to be covered: https://youtu.be/r_0CSYjMGco

Did you know? We post daily statistics on our website showing ballots returned, opened and tabulated. Check it out here: https://www.edcgov.us//november-2020-general-return-statis

ATTENTION Meeks Bay/West Shore Voters: We are partnered with our neighbors in Placer County. You can drop your ballots in their drop boxes and we will pick them up from them. Please spread the word. Tahoe City The Old Firehouse 300 N Lake Blvd... Hours: 24 Hour Drive-Up Drop Box Olympic Valley Olympic Valley Public Utility District (formerly Squaw Valley Public Utility District) 305 Squaw Valley Road Hours: Mon through Fri 8am 5pm Truckee Raley’s O-N-E Market 10001 Soaring Way Hours: Everyday 6am 11pm Kings Beach Kings Beach Library 301 Secline Street Hours: 24 Hour Drive-Up Drop Box

In-Person Voting officially starts today (10/5)! Come into our office to vote in-person now. Vote Early, be counted early.

Tomorrow morning (10/6) we will be giving a presentation to the board on our plans for running a COVID-safe election while providing in person voting. Tune in to the Board the meeting starting at 9am to hear the plans and ask questions.

There is an article in the Sac Bee about ballots being "Thrown Out." That is completely wrong. We do not throw out any ballots, we hold them for 24 months. We follow the law on what can be counted or not counted or are returned because ballots cannot be forwarded. We had 75,708 ballots returned and counted. Below are the Stats for El Dorado County for any ballot returned but not counted: Sig Doesn't Match: 55 Too Late: 518 (after 8pm Election Day) No Signature: 235... A postcard is sent to anyone who's signature does not match or is missing. Hundreds were corrected before election day, these are the ones not corrected.