This article was written by BenitoLink intern Camille Mattish. Lea este articulo en español aquí.
Over 95% of the unprocessed election ballots in San Benito County awaiting rectification are what’s known as “challenged” ballots, County Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters Francisco Diaz told BenitoLink. Voters can rectify them until March 27, and ballots left unresolved will not be counted.
Diaz said some of the causes of challenged ballots include a missing signature, mismatched signature, lack of ballot in the envelope, incorrect ballot in the right envelope, duplicated vote, different county on the voter registration or a voter has been reported as deceased.
In the county, the number of unprocessed ballots for the March 5 primary election is approximately 216, as of March 20. Of those, five are provisional and 211 are damaged, unreadable or challenged.
According to the California Secretary of State’s website, there are 20,701 unprocessed ballots statewide that are damaged, or could not be machine-read and need to be remade, or were diverted by optical scanners for further review.
Diaz said voters have the opportunity to resolve challenged ballots.
“For example, if the challenge concerns a signature discrepancy, the voter will receive a letter explaining the signature error or failure to sign, and they will be requested to re-sign their envelope,” said Diaz.
The Elections Office will contact a voter whose ballot is challenged a minimum of three times, possibly four. The office will communicate through phone calls, text messages, mail and occasionally in-person visits.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, county elections officials must report final results for presidential delegates to the state by April 2 and all other state contests by April 5. The secretary of state will certify the results on April 12.
The latest election results can be found here.
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