By Jeremy Couso
It was a fairly sleepy Tuesday afternoon around town when I visited the Lassen County Clerk’s Office to get some pictures for a story I was working on last week. So stepping into the election office on South Lassen Street was jarring… phones ringing, people in line to ask questions, people dropping off ballots. A whirlwind of activity in the office charged with making sure that every single vote in Lassen County is verified and tabulated.
Early voting is way up in Lassen County this year. By Monday of this week Lassen County Clerk Julie Bustamante and her staff had already processed more than 3,700 ballots. The total turnout for this year’s Presidential election here in the county is expected to be 10,000 ballots.
Three people in the election office are tasked with checking signatures on the 10,000 ballots to make sure they match Voter Registration cards.
“We personally look at every signature, and compare it to the signature on the Voter Registration Card. We are looking for similarities, not differences. If the signature is slightly different we accept the ballot and send a notice to the voter asking them to update their signature.”
“If the signature does not match, three of us look at it and then we contact the voter to come in and “cure” the signature. After we are satisfied we process the ballot.”
What happens to your ballot once it is verified?
Ten days before the election the team starts processing the ballots, running them through a letter opener and placing them back into the containers in bundles of 25.
“We count and band the ballots in bundles of 25, and make sure that count matches the number of signatures checked in the Election Management System. Then the ballots are locked in metal boxes and stored in a locked room with security.”
To insure the integrity, at all times a minimum of two people process the ballots. Through this ‘dual-control’ at no time does one person work alone.
Next, two people take 100 ballots each to a table located in view for the public.
“The envelopes are stacked with the name and signatures face down so we do not see whose ballot we are opening. The ballot is pulled out and stacked to the side. The empty envelopes are banded back together and set aside. The stack of ballots are counted to make sure our count is correct.”
As ballots are unfolded and stacked a written count is also tracked and initialed by both workers processing the ballots.
“After we have a substantial stack of ballots, they are run through the ballot scanner, and the results are stored on a memory stick. We verify the number of ballots that were processed with our hand count.”
This year the election office will be using a brand new piece of equipment that allows staff to run the ballots through in large stacks rather than feeding them into a reader one at a time. The monster of a machine processes 300 ballots a minute, compared to the old technology which could only read about 60 per minute.
No votes are tallied or revealed until 8:00p.m., on November 3rd, when the memory stick is loaded into the tabulator and posted to the election office’s website and sent to the Secretary of State’s system.
What questions do voters have?
According to Bustamante most of the calls they receive are from voters who did not receive their ballot.
“Most of the time,” she explains, “the cause is they changed their address and did not let us know. We also have a lot of difficulty with the information we are receiving through the Secretary of State’s VoteCal system and DMV.”
“During this election we are receiving a lot of calls because voters are mad we are not having traditional polling places. This is due to the fact that Lassen County is adhering to federal guidance and the State’s stay-at-home requirements as directed in the gubernatorial Executive Order and statutes, and the California Department of Public Health orders, directives and guidance in response to the COVID-19 emergency.”
This election, every voter in California was issued a Vote-by-Mail ballot in order to keep them safe and voters are encouraged to mail their ballots early. The change shouldn’t be too jarring for Lassen County residents who have overwhelmingly voted by mail in previous elections. In 2018, according to Bustamante, 82% of county voters returned ballots by mail.
“If they do not want to mail their ballot they can drop them off at the Election office at 220 S Lassen Street, Susanville. There is also an Official Drop Box located behind the Historic Courthouse and at the Fire Hall in Janesville.”
If you have not received your ballot, contact the Election office at 530-251-8217.
“The Lassen County Election team is committed to conducting every election with honesty and integrity. We do our best to providing every qualified voter with a ballot, and making sure that every Vote Counts!”
