It’s always nicer to talk to a person rather than a machine. While we do our best to maintain an online effort at communicating with San Mateo County residents, we also work hard at making sure our office is readily available in person and on the phone.
Some shifting of responsibilities has occurred in the past few months, so we thought we’d give you an update on operations. Meet our core staff, as listed below, and learn more about the different parts of the office that each oversees.
Posted in Elections Office, Outreach, Uncategorized
Tagged Elections Office, responsibilities, staff
With three (three!) elections coming up within weeks of each other, the Elections Office is charging full steam ahead with various projects including Election Officer recruitment, ballot production, voter registration, and supply inventory.
While the May 5 Special School District Election is an all-mail ballot, plenty still needs to be done! Early voting for the May 5 election begins on April 6, and before that day arrives, we need to have our official ballots and Voter Information Pamphlets printed and mailed, and conduct logic & accuracy tests on BallotNow machines (the machines that tabulate the ballots).
The May 19 Consolidated Special Statewide Election and the June 2 Special School District Election are both elections that will have polling places. This means that we need to recruit Election Officers and field personnel, conduct training classes, stock up on supplies, and confirm polling place locations in addition to the normal voter registration updates, ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet production, and eSlate and Ballot Now machine testing.
Extra help staff has already arrived to help us with these efforts. In the past week, over 12,000 voter registration edit requests have been processed and the Election Officer unit phones have been ringing off the hook. By the way, we are recruiting student poll workers in addition to our regular Election Officers! If you’re interested, contact (650) 286-2810!
Supplies have been inventoried and the organization of specific polling place supplies is beginning now.
Logic & accuracy testing of the eSlate voting machines and BallotNow machines begins on March 16 and matrices to organize testing have been created.
The election season is definitely in full swing! We’ll be posting pics soon so that you can have a sneak peek at the Elections Office!
Posted in Ballots, Elections Office, Graphics, Outreach, Poll workers, Polling place, Shape the Future, Vote By Mail, Vote counting, Voter registration, Voting, eSlates
Tagged Elections Office, Poll workers, Training, polling places, Election preparation, extra help, election warehouse, logic & accuracy, recruitement
The 2008 Presidential General Election is now certified. Official results can be found on our website at http://www.shapethefuture.org/elections/results/november2008/results.asp.
It’s been a pretty grueling year — the Elections office conducted six elections in 12 months and ended the cycle with the historic 2008 Presidential General Election.
A number of races had a tremendous amount of media and public attention — not just the presidential contest. The result was a huge turnout, albeit not as huge as we originally anticipated. Still, 78.86% turnout in a year where election fatigue had really hit most of the County is a statistic not to be ignored.
Hundreds upon hundreds of people came in to our early voting centers in San Mateo and Redwood City; we had more early voters in one day than we would typically have during an entire election.
Even more voters opted to Vote by Mail, with Vote by Mail ballots accounting for 45.83% of the total ballots cast.
And after 12 months of virtually non-stop work, our Olympus machine will finally get to rest its weary mechanical arms and sleep until a 2009 election is called.
What will the rest of the Election staff be doing? Cleaning up after the 2008 cycle, updating voter registration, creating and revising procedure manuals, and much, much more. Stay tuned to this blog, because even though the 2008 election cycle is done, the Elections Office is not!
Why haven’t you voted yet? Don’t wait till Tuesday to cast your ballot!
If you haven’t been reading our blog, maybe you just don’t know that you can already vote by coming into either of San Mateo County’s elections office locations (40 Tower Road in San Mateo and 555 County Center in Redwood City) . We’re open 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily just waiting for voters to come in and cast their ballot on our eSlate voting machines. And any voter can vote here, as long as the voter lives in San Mateo County.
For voters who just haven’t transitioned to voting on the eSlate yet, we do have paper ballots available as well.
And guess what…if you can’t come in during business hours (perhaps because you’re busy with your own business hours), come in on Saturday!
Both locations will be open 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday to accommodate voters and assist voters with questions and concerns regarding elections.
So, again, why wait? Vote today!
We’re in the thick of the Elections year and California’s political climate is only going to get hotter. Not relegated to a season anymore, the sheer quantity of elections being held in 2008 coupled with the rising costs of producing elections material results in staggering dollar amounts. The price tag on April’s Special Congressional Primary Election was a hard number to swallow, but there was an important lesson to be learned: voting by mail can save a ton of money.
Today is the last day to request a Vote by Mail ballot for the June 3 Statewide Direct Primary Election, so make sure to contact the Elections Office right away! There are a couple ways to get your request in for your Vote by Mail ballot.
1) Go online to http://www.shapethefuture.org/apps/vabr/default.asp and submit an electronic application.
2) Take your Sample Ballot, rip off the back cover, fill out the bottom portion, and fax it to (650) 312-5348.
But whatever you do, don’t mail it! The Elections Office must receive your application today, meaning (once again) postmarks don’t count.
Still have questions? Call the Registration & Elections Division at
(650) 312-5222 for answers!
Early voting for the June 3 Statewide Direct Primary Election began Monday, allowing voters to cast their ballots early through use of the Universal Voting Centers or Vote by Mail.
During the 29 days period preceding an election, California law allows voters to cast their ballot early thus accomplishing two goals: providing alternate options for voters may be unable to vote on Election Day, and allowing Vote by Mail voters to submit their ballot prior to the deadline.
“Any voter, from any precinct, can come in and vote early,” said San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum. “I encourage everyone to make their vote a priority. Don’t wait until Election Night when you might have to work late, fight traffic and search for parking. Just make the time to come by and vote.”
Monday also marked the first day that the Elections Office can begin mailing the official Vote by Mail ballots to voters. Slocum encouraged voters, “Keep a lookout for the arrival of your official ballot in the mail; it’s coming!”
If you are not signed up to Vote by Mail, it is not too late to join the 138,636 people in San Mateo County who already got a head start on Election Day by voting through the mail.
“Voting by mail simplifies your life, as voters can decide when and where they want to vote,”Slocum said. “Vote at work, at the kitchen table, or after you’ve put the kids to bed!”
Voters who wish to vote an early electronic or paper ballot can stop by either of our two Universal Voting Centers locations:
40 Tower Road
San Mateo, Ca
555 County Center, 1st Floor
Redwood City, Ca
To turn in your Vote by Mail ballot, simply drop it in the mail, stop by your local city hall (within San Mateo County), or bring it in to one of the Universal Voting Centers. If you forget to turn it in and Election Day arrives, you can drop the voted ballot off at any active polling place within the county – just make sure we get it before 8 p.m. on Election Day.
If you’re not registered as a Vote by Mail voter yet, hurry up! Get an application online at www.shapethefuture.org or call the Elections Office at 650-312-5222. The back cover of your Sample Ballot & Voter Information Pamphlet also has a form that you can return to request a Vote by Mail ballot.
Voters may also fax or mail a written request to Vote by Mail to the Elections Office stating: (1) voter’s full name; (2) voter’s San Mateo County residence address; (3) voter’s mailing address, if different from the residence address; (4) name and date of the election for which you want the Vote by Mail ballot; and (5) the voter’s signature. Requests can be mailed to 40 Tower Road, San Mateo, CA 94402 or faxed to 650-312-5348. Requests must be received by the Elections Office no later than 5 p.m. on Tues., May 27. A postmark is not acceptable.
By the way, if you send in anything by mail, don’t forget that postage rates change to 42 cents beginning May 12.
“Voting has never been easier or more convenient,” Slocum said. “Take advantage of these opportunities and make every effort to vote early.”
My alarm clock is a good little friend. It’s patient, enduring and doesn’t give up on me – even when I get upset and threaten to throw it against a wall.
My little clock’s dreams for me finally came to fruition when I woke up right at 5 a.m. But truth be told, I didn’t really wake up for my clock’s sake. The fact that today is Election Day and I had to get to the polls to help set up was definitely an influential factor.
As a voter, I’ve often taken for granted the work that goes into putting together an election. I usually just show up at the polls, vote my ballot, and go on my merry way. Being on the other side has definitely put things into perspective. If you’ve read our earlier posts, you know that we started working on today’s election back in February.
Sample ballots have to be designed and written, poll workers have to be trained, equipment has to be tested…and it all culminates into one big final exam at the end of the preparation period where all the weeks of work are tested by poll workers’ ability to get the polling places up and running by 7 a.m. To get the polls running, a slew of task items have to be checked off, like:
With only four days left until the voters of the 12th Congressional District get the opportunity to select a new U.S. Rep. during April 8 Special Congressional Open Primary Election, the Elections Office is kicking things into high gear.
Rows of red reach into each corner of the warehouse, screaming for attention amidst the tan and metal. At 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, barely past dawn, those Red Supply Cases will be granted their wish as they are tucked into the Elections Office vans for the second time in as many months.
While Tuesday may not be the Tsunami that Feb. 5 represented, the timing of the election places it in the middle of an election cycle that has not one, not two, not even three, but five, distinctly different elections that each ask voters to turn their attention to a separate issue.
Five elections in one year – it may not seem like much, but consider that San Mateo County typically hosts only two elections (the Primary Election and the General Election) during a presidential cycle.
So how do we keep track of everything? One word – “multitasking.”
As the supplies get transferred to their requisite polling locations for Tuesday’s election, a whole separate section of the office hunkers down in the ballot processing room for Logic & Accuracy (L&A) testing in preparation of the May 6 Portola Valley Elementary School District Special Mail Ballot Election.
Three cities south in Redwood City, the Graphics team holes up in their cubes tapping away furiously at keyboards and mouse buttons to finalize the June 5 Statewide Direct Primary Election Sample Ballots for production.
Posted in Elections Office, Graphics, Testing, eSlates
Tagged April 8 Special Congressional Open Primary Election, Election preparation, Elections Office, eSlates, Graphics team, June 3 Statewide Direct Primary Election, L&A, May 6 Portola Valley Elementary School District Special, supplies, Testing
Thousands of tally marks and repeated calls of candidates’ names have been the order of the day around these parts. And that would be because the one percent manual recount, required in the 28 days following Nov. 6′s Consolidated Municipal, School and Special District Election, got started Monday and continued through today.
Teams of four were busy following strict procedures for manually recounting all the votes cast in 18 of San Mateo County’s 400 precincts that were randomly selected early Tuesday. See how 10-sided dice helped us determine the precincts.
Votes were recounted whether they were cast on Vote by Mail ballots, eSlates, provisional ballots, paper ballots or at universal voting centers before Election Day. Election folk worked at tables in teams of four to count votes, and it all sounded something like this:
Person A: “Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince.”
Persons C and D: “10″
Person A: “Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince.”
Persons C and D: “20″
Riveted? Perplexed? Bored? Wondering who Vince is?
Posted in Ballots, Results, Vote counting
Tagged calling out votes, Elections Office, eSlate printers, manual recount, precincts, tally marks
Ah, this is Warren Slocum’s most favorite time of the year.
Come again? The election is over, and I know who won my city council race. I’m moving on to making my plans for Thanksgiving.
But oh, in his world, the fun has just begun. Welcome to the Official Canvass of the Vote.
“The canvass is the least understood, most important part of the elections process,” Slocum, our chief elections officer, is apt to declare.
Not to be confused with the Official “Canvas” of the Vote, which we’ll leave for our budding artists to figure out. No, this is canvass with two s’s, as in political canvassing.
The canvass is actually a 28-day period following the election in which vote tallies are completed and ballots and votes are reconciled. A manual recount of at least 1 percent of the votes cast in each race verifies that votes cast by voters are correctly reflected in results reports.
“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.
Posted in Ballots, Elections Office, Results, Vote counting
Tagged 28 days, Ballots, canvass of the vote, certified results, Elections Office, manual recount, reconciliation, votes
