Inside Elections

As we mentioned earlier, the Official Canvass of the Vote started Wednesday, marking the beginning of the 28-day period required to complete vote tallies and ballots and reconciliation of votes.

“The Canvass is the least understood, most important part of the elections process,” Slocum, our Chief Elections Officer, is apt to declare.

• There are many parts to the Canvass, but here’s the breakdown as described by the California Association of Clerks and Elected Officials:
• Inspection of all of the election materials and supplies returned by the Precinct Board.
• Reconciliation of the number of signatures on the Combined Roster-Index with the number of ballots recorded on the Precinct Ballot Statement.
• Processing the official polling place Combined Roster-Index, which includes accounting for all voters who signed the Combined Roster-Index on Election Day.
• Update voter history from the Combined Roster-Index.
• Reconciliation of the number of ballots counted, spoiled, surrendered, or invalidated to to “identifying marks”
• Processing and tallying of any valid Vote by Mail and Provisional Ballots not included in the Semifinal Official Vote Results
• Counting any valid Write-In votes
• Reconciling damaged ballots
• Conducting the 1% Manual Tally of the Votes
• Reporting final results to the Governing Board
• Transmitting certified results to the Secretary of State

“Performing the canvass is the way that elections offices can be certain that all the vote counting systems are accurate and, ultimately, that the votes are accurate,” said Elections Manager David Tom.

We’ll be breaking down the different parts of the Canvass as we begin each process over the course of the next 28 days.  In the meantime, check out our earlier post for a detailed overview of the Canvass by clicking here!