SLO County clerk-recorder is up for election — so she recused herself from handling ballots
San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder Elaina Cano is running to keep her seat in Tuesday’s primary election.
Because she’s on the ballot, she won’t participate in the ballot-counting process, Cano said.
Cano was appointed to the county clerk-recorder post by the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors in October, after Tommy Gong resigned to take a job in the Bay Area. She’s running against two other candidates to keep her position: attorney Stew Jenkins and U.S. Army veteran James Baugh.
Usually, the clerk-recorder would help her team process ballots and send ballot count reports to the California Secretary of State, Cano said.
“I would be more hands-on,” Cano said.
This election, however, she’s recused herself from handling the ballots.
The law doesn’t require clerk-recorder candidates to avoid ballots, but Cano chose to recuse herself anyway, she said, so voters could trust the election process.
The life of a ballot
The clerk-recorder’s office started counting mail-in ballots about two weeks before election day.
When a mail-in ballot arrives at the San Luis Obispo County Elections Office, it’s scanned by a machine to check if the signature on the outside of the envelope matches the voter’s records. If the signature matches, the ballot is sent to another machine that slices the envelope open.
The ballot then heads to the processing board, which removes the ballots from their envelopes.
Staff then check the ballots for damage or other identifying marks, such as coffee stains or someone’s initials in the margins.
Clean ballots are then sent to a machine to be counted. The machine flags ballots with write-in candidates, and staff check to see if they’re included on the Secretary of State’s list of qualified write-in candidates.
People often write in their own candidates, Cano said, noting that Mickey Mouse is a popular option every year.
The machine also notifies staff if the bubble next to a candidate’s name doesn’t have enough ink — which can happen if people use check-marks to indicate their vote.
Staff check these ballots to determine the intent of the voter. If the voter used check marks for all of the candidates, staff will assume that the voter intended to select those candidates, Cano said.
Once the ballots are counted, they’re sealed into a box and “the life of the ballot is over,” Cano said.
Cano has recused herself from all of these activities, she said.
“I have been completely hands-off,” Cano said. “I’ll continue to be hands-off throughout the canvass.”
Polls close at 8 p.m. on election day. Soon after 8 p.m., the clerk-recorder’s office will release an unofficial count of the mail-in ballots they received before election day, and start counting ballots cast at the polls on election day.
The elections office sends reports to the Secretary of State throughout the night until all of the ballots cast on election day are counted.
Cano also won’t contribute to the ballot-count reports sent to the Secretary of State, she said.
Instead, Elections Office deputy director Melissa Lyle will manage the reports — from sending them to the Secretary of State to posting them to the clerk-recorder website for the public to view, Cano said.
On election night, Cano said she’ll focus on communicating with the public, such as talking with the media and explaining the ballot-counting process to observers. She will also be available to answer her staff’s questions as needed, she said.
