We’re now in the midst of the Official Canvass, a process that takes place immediately following an election. This process is our time to update voting history in the voter registration database and audit and certify the election results, and must be complete within 28 calendar days.
Until the official results are published in our Statement of the Vote, semi-official results will be regularly posted on our website at www.shapethefuture.org.
During the Canvass, we also take an opportunity to reflect on Election Day and the days leading up to it. Narda Barrientos, Elections Supervisor, once said, “The Elections Office is all about change. We’ve been in a constant state of change, and we will continue to change as long as it makes our processes stronger.”
The biggest change this election? We did away with Receiving Stations. Was it successful? As Mattel’s Magic 8 Ball would say, “all signs point to yes.”
Continue reading →
Posted in Ballots, Election Day/Night, Elections Office, Poll workers, Polling place, Results, Shape the Future, Training, Vote counting
Tagged supplies, receiving stations, canvass, AssetShadow, integrity, security, Couriers
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
With Election Day less than 96 hours away, it’s time for hordes of supplies and electronic eSlate voting machines to get a-movin’.
Since yesterday, four Delancey Street Movers trucks have been making frequent stops at Elections headquarters on Tower Road in San Mateo, picking up 1,600 eSlates and other hefty Election Day furnishings (like tables and chairs) for drop off at polling sites throughout the county.
There are 24 routes in all - they’re doing eight a day through Monday. Elections Office field technicians follow the Delancey trucks, ensuring the equipment gets to its intended destination and locking it up for safe keeping once it arrives. The equipment will remain there until the polls open Tuesday morning.
It’s no easy job moving these eSlates, as each machine weighs 30 pounds. Do the math, and that’s 48,000 pounds of electronic voting equipment to get moving! eSlates are loaded by eight into metal racks for more efficient transport with pallet jacks.
Continue reading →
Ever go to your polling place on Election Day and notice how well-supplied it is with all those little things? Probably not. You go in, you vote, and you get on with your day. But think about it.
A poll worker uses an indelible pencil to mark your name off the voter roster. Provisional ballot envelopes are at the ready. Vote! signs are tacked up on the walls outside. All those supplies to make a polling place a polling place – down to the push pins - have to come from somewhere, right?
Well, they hail from within some 30,000 square feet of warehouse space at Tower Road. There are shelves upon shelves and boxes upon boxes of pens, indelible pencils, highlighters, flags, paper clips, doorstops, paper ballot boxes, voting signs and even push pins in corks.
“It’s kind of trivial. You wouldn’t think of a cork with tacks in it,” said Howard Stovall, who oversees polling place supply distribution. “But when the poll workers are there, what do they do with this material that’s required to be displayed?”
They need tacks. And it’s Stovall’s job to make sure they have them.
Continue reading →
