Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Elections
November 14, 2008
Contact:
Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer
Phone: (650) 363-4988 E-mail: wslocum@smcare.org
Alternate:
David Tom, Elections Manager
Phone: (650) 312-5222 E-mail: dtom@smcare.org
One Percent Manual Tally of November 4 Presidential Election to Commence
Part of the Official Canvass, transparent process to ensure accuracy of vote begins Wednesday
Redwood City, CA – On Wednesday, November 19 at 8 a.m., the San Mateo County Elections Office is scheduled to begin its one percent manual tally of votes cast in the November 4 Presidential General Election, which will ensure the accuracy of the vote before certifying election results.
The manual tally, 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 began as soon as the polls closed on Election Day. Observers are welcome to monitor the progress of the 1% manual tally and all aspects of the Official Canvass.
“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 the 1% manual tally 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 the manual tally is not a simple matter of choosing one percent of San Mateo County’s 542, including both regular (448) and mail ballot precincts (94) precincts.
“Every race that occurred must have at least one percent of its votes manually recounted. It also means local elections for school boards, city offices and the nine local measures on the November 4 ballot must be included in the tally” Slocum said. “I anticipate that 11 precincts will undergo the manual tally.”
The first five precincts are the core precincts of the 1% tally where every vote cast in those precinct are tallied, whether it was cast via eSlate electronic voting machine at the polls, paper ballot, Vote by Mail ballot, provisional ballot or early voting ballots cast at the Election Offices. Subsequent precincts selected are for those contests that were not included in the five core precincts and will only be tallied for those contests. Precinct boards will work in teams of four, to manually read, call out, record and tally votes.
The one percent manual tally is just one part of the Official Canvass of the Vote. 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 and inventoried. For a complete explanation of the requirements of the canvass, visit http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_oc.htm.
When the manual tally and the other official canvass requirements are completed, election results will be certified and made official by Slocum. Results must be certified by Dec. 2 and then presented to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors for acceptance.
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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