Fact check: How many ballots went uncounted in SLO County supervisor race and why?
Bruce Jones’ campaign may request a recount for the District 2 Board of Supervisors race because they believe election workers possibly made mistakes that improperly disqualified ballots.
As it stands now, incumbent Supervisor Bruce Gibson won by a margin of just 13 votes over Jones.
Whether Jones files for a recount and what it shows remains to be seen.
On Friday, County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano further explained the process in an interview with The Tribune, detailing how many ballots were uncounted and why. She certified the election on Wednesday.
“It’s unfortunate that these rumors start and then all the speculation happens,” Cano said.
Here’s a look at the issues the Jones camp is concerned about and where the situation stands now.
Were mail-in ballots turned in without envelopes?
According to Jones campaign spokesman Erik Gorham, some poll workers told voters they could return their mail-in ballot without an envelope.
But mail-in ballots must be returned in a signed envelop in order to count, as opposed to precinct ballots that are submitted as is, without an envelope.
“I don’t believe this was malicious. I believe these are volunteers that made mistakes,” Gorham said on the Dave Congalton radio show Wednesday night.
Cano said the Elections Office did receive a few calls on Election Day from voters who said that poll workers advised them to return their mail-in ballot without an envelope.
She said the Elections Office called inspectors at those precincts, who shared that poll workers did what their training instructed: They allowed voters to surrender their mail-in ballots in exchange for precinct ballots, accepted voters’ completed mail-in ballots sealed in their envelopes, or offered envelopes to folks who had completed mail-in ballots but were missing envelopes.
“I’m not sure where the miscommunication was,” Cano told The Tribune on Nov. 9, referring to voters and poll workers.
On the Congalton show, Gorham speculated about the number of mail-in ballots that may have gone uncounted because they weren’t sealed in envelopes, saying that there could be enough to make up the 13-vote deficit.
However, In District 2, Cano told The Tribune on Friday that only two voters submitted mail-in ballots without an envelop. These ballots could have been returned at a polling place or in a drop box — so this may not be the fault of a poll worker, she said.
Countywide, only 10 total voters returned their mail-in ballots without envelopes, according to Cano.
What other ballots weren’t counted?
The Elections Office’s goal is to clear as many ballots as possible and include them in the count, so staff work to help voters cure ballots when discrepancies occur.
The office notified voters who didn’t sign their envelope or had mismatched signatures in order to give them the opportunity cure their ballots. They had until Dec. 5 to complete that process and ensure their votes were counted.
Nevertheless, some ballots still go uncounted when issues can’t be resolved.
In District 2, 223 ballots weren’t counted for a variety of reasons.
Aside from the two mail-in ballots that didn’t have envelopes, here’s how the others break down, according to Cano:
- 2 ballots were disqualified because a first-time voter didn’t provide identification
- 1 envelope contained multiple ballots
- 11 mail-in ballots didn’t have signatures on their envelopes
- 93 mail-in ballots had signatures that didn’t match county records
- 112 mail-in ballots were postmarked after Election Day or arrived more than seven days after the election
- 2 provisional ballots were disqualified because the voter had already submitted a mail-in ballot
Countywide, 1,438 ballots weren’t counted out of a total of 121,156 cast, including 596 ballots that arrived “too late,” such as ballots postmarked after Election Day on Nov. 7 or that arrived at the Elections Office more than seven days after the election, Cano said.
“If voters have concerns or questions or doubts, that is why we open the doors,” Cano said. “Come watch what we’re doing. Come out for questions of those that are actually doing the process.”
What would Jones’ campaign be looking for in a recount?
In a recount, the Jones campaign said it wants to examine at least two types of ballots: mail-in ballots returned without an envelope and ballots that staff had to interpret.
If a voter fills out their ballot incorrectly, election staff must interpret the ballot for the voter’s intent and record the vote.
For example, if a voter marks their vote with a check mark instead of filling in the bubble, election staff will examine the ballot and decide which candidate the marking is supposed to support.
If the Jones campaign doesn’t agree with the election staff’s interpretation of the ballots, Gorham said the campaign could sue the county Elections Office.
“We’ll go through the recount process, and if we find what we think we’ll need, we’ll take that to a judge,” Gorham told The Tribune on Friday.
Gibson won with 11,722 votes, or 50.03%, to Jones’ 11,709 votes, or 49.97%, according to the final count.
“We’re trying to make sure that every vote counts, every vote was interpreted properly, and that the rightful person wins this election,” Gorham said on the radio.
How else could a recount occur?
State law requires the person who requests the recount to fund the process, which Gorham estimated would cost from $30,000 to $40,000 for the District 2 race.
But that’s not the only way a recount could take place.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors could also request a recount, by asking the district attorney to order the Elections Office to conduct one, attorney Mike Nolan said on the Congalton show.
This way, the Jones campaign wouldn’t have to fund the recount.
Still, Gorham told The Tribune on Friday that the campaign doesn’t plan to ask the board to request the recount.
“It would be great if the board did that because it would save us a lot of money,” Gorham told The Tribune. “But we don’t feel like it’s our place to ask them.”
On Tuesday, the board will vote to declare the results of the election, according to the meeting agenda.
As of Friday afternoon, the Elections Office had not yet received a request for a recount, Cano said.
The deadline for any California voter to request a recount in a SLO County race is Monday at 5 p.m., she said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
