Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections

February 19, 2008

Contact:
Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer
Phone: (650) 363-4988 E-mail: wslocum@smcare.org

Aternate:
David Tom, Elections Manager
Phone: (650) 312-5222 E-mail: dtom@smcare.org

One Percent Manual Recount of Feb. 5 Presidential Primary to Commence
Part of the Official Canvass, transparent process to ensure accuracy of vote begins Friday

Redwood City, CA – On Feb. 22nd at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25 at 8:30 am , the San Mateo County Elections Office will begin its one percent manual recount of votes cast in the Feb. 5 Presidential Primary Election, which will ensure the accuracy of the vote before certifying election results. (Manual Recount Delayed - The Manual Recount scheduled for Friday, Feb. 22 will be delayed until Monday, Feb. 25 at 8:30 am due to the extended time needed to complete the resolution of provisional ballots.The public is welcome to observe this process.)

The manual recount, which will be held at the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo, is required by California law in the 28 days following an election. It is one part of the Official Canvass of the Vote, which begun after the polls closed on Election Day.

“The canvass is the least understood, most important part of the elections process,” said San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum. “During the canvass, we verify that the votes cast by voters in an election and represented by the semi-official results that are posted online are, in fact, accurate. Official election results will not be certified until the results of this process are completed and we have confirmed the outcomes of the contests on the ballot.”

Precincts selected for manual recounting are determined randomly using three ten-sided dice to roll numbers that represent digits in precinct numbers. However, the number of precincts that will be subject to recount is not a simple matter of choosing one percent of San Mateo County’s 448 precincts.

“Besides each party’s presidential primary and the state propositions, we had four local measures on the Feb. 5 ballot. Every race that occurred must have one percent of its votes manually recounted,” Slocum said. “More likely, there will be 7 to 9 precincts that will undergo the manual recount.”

If a precinct is selected, every vote cast in that precinct is recounted, whether it was cast via eSlate electronic voting machine at the polls, paper ballot, Vote by Mail ballot, provisional ballot or early voting at a universal voting center. Elections officials will work in teams of four, called a precinct board, to manually read, call out, record and tally votes.

Beginning this election, new rules from the Secretary of State further require a 10 percent manual recount in races where the winning margin of difference between is less than one half of one percent. But all races occurring in San Mateo County for this election appear to have been decided by significantly higher margins, and the 10 percent rule will not apply.

After the manual recount is completed, election results will be certified and made official by Slocum. Results must be certified by March 4 and then are accepted by various local governing bodies.

The one percent manual recount is just one part of the Official Canvass of the Vote, which has eight components. Every ballot and vote that wasn’t counted on Election Night is processed, including Vote by Mail ballots received the day before or on Election Day, and provisional ballots. Ballot numbers and signatures on voter rosters are reconciled with the number of votes cast, and precinct supplies are inspected. For a complete explanation of the requirements of the canvass, visit http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_oc.htm.

The manual recount, including the rolling of the dice to determine audited precincts, is a transparent process open to the public. Call (650) 312-5222 if you wish to make arrangements to observe.

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