Ex-Paso Robles school board member running to reclaim seat. How many votes have been counted?
Election Day for the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District is fast approaching.
As of Friday afternoon, the San Luis Obispo County Elections Office had already processed about 8,800 mail-in ballots.
“More are expected to be returned leading up to Election Day,” San Luis Obispo County Clerk Recorder Elaina Cano wrote in a news release.
The special election was initiated when a petition by community members gathered enough valid signatures to remove former school board member Kenney Enney in December.
Enney was appointed to the Paso Robles school board in October.
After Enney attended three board meetings, organizers including school district staffers, a Cal Poly instructor and a San Luis Obispo County social worker gathered the 800 signatures needed to remove Enney from his position.
Enney is one of two candidates competing for the open seat on the Paso Robles school board.
Enney is running in the election to win back his seat. Angela Hollander, a parent of two children attending school in the district, is running for the seat as well.
Election Day is April 18.
When will SLO County release election results?
Shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m., the Elections Office will release its first round of election results — which is a tally of the mail-in ballots submitted before Election Day.
Meanwhile, poll workers at the 17 precincts will “account for all voted, unvoted and spoiled ballots, pack up their supplies and transport all the required ballots and supplies to the Collection Center — this can take over an hour,” the release said.
Once the ballots reach the SLO County Elections Office, county staff will start counting them.
Election results will be posted at www.slovote.com every two hours on election night until all of the precinct ballots are counted, according to the Elections Office.
Mail-in ballots returned to the county by mail, in ballot drop boxes, or at the polls on or after Election Day are counted during the days following Election Day, according to the agency.
Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive at the Elections Office by April 25, seven days after the election, will be counted.
After counting all of the mail-in ballots, county staff will tally provisional ballots.
“These are the last ballots counted because they must be researched and verified,” election officials said in the release. “Depending on how many provisional ballots have been received, it may take a few days or even weeks to process, but every valid vote will be counted.”
Voters who returned mail-in ballots without a signature on the envelope, or with a signature that doesn’t match county voter registration records, will be notified and asked to cure their signature.
Voters must cure their signature no more than two days before the election is certified, according to Cano.
The election must be certified by May 17, but “there is a very good chance that we certify much sooner,” Cano wrote in the release.
This story was originally published April 14, 2023 at 1:50 PM.
