Inside Elections

Field Techs and Ride Along Coordinators support Election Officers and roam from precinct to precinct to assist with any issues that may arise on Election Day.

To keep track of these issues, the San Mateo County Elections Office utilizes Incident and General Tracking Logs which Field Techs return at the end of their shift.  Reviewing these logs allows us to understand what types of issues are common at the polls and help us to prepare for the next election.

The California Secretary of State’s office gets a copy of any issues reported relating to electronic voting equipment.  The most common equipment issue from the June 3 Statewide Direct Primary Election was paper jams with the VBOs (Verifiable Ballot Option — the printer to the side of the eSlate that allows voters to verify their ballot choices before submitting their ballot).

We’re still in the process of wading through the issues from the November 4 General Presidential.  We only had a total of about 399 reported issues (including non-equipment related issues like the polling place contact wasn’t there to open the building for us or the power went out at the precinct).  In June, we had about 210 issues reported. Considering the incredible turnout, this really wasn’t too bad.  We had our hopes for the best but expected the worst.  Chalk it up to experience — this is the sixth election we’ve held in a year!