Votes have been counted from 58,096 people out of the 182,291 SLO County registered voters as of Tuesday, Nov.9.
51,200 people voted by mail before Election Day and 6,896 people voted at the polls on Election Day in SLO County. Election officials are still processing 22,270 of the vote-by-mail ballots that were turned in on Election Day and 5,000 of the vote-by-ballots received on Nov.9, according to a news release from the County Clerk’s office.
The County of San Luis Obispo has extended its hours to count vote-by-mail ballots on Friday, Nov. 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano said in the release release.
Ballots will continue to be processed if they were a last minute vote-by-mail, postmarked vote-by-mail, provisional or had a missed or mismatched signature, according to the release.
California law allows ballots to be counted after Election Day so long as they are received within seven days after the election and are postmarked on or before Election Day.
Provisional ballots are the last ballots counted as it requires a few weeks to research and validate them, however, every vote will be counted, Cano said in an issued press release. Approximately 800 voters voted provisionally at the polls in SLO County.
Election officials will also provide a voter with the applicable notice to fix a missing or mismatched signature. This notice must be returned to the Registrar of Voters no later than two days before the certification of the election. About 559 votes by mail were challenged due to a missing or mismatched signature, or no ID provided for first-time federal voters, according to the release.
All ballots are expected to be verified by Dec. 8, 2022, Cano said.
For further questions, contact San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano, ecano@co.slo.ca.us