Contact: Mark Church, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Alternate: David Tom, Elections Manager
Redwood City, CA –On Friday, May 6 at 8:30 am, the San Mateo County Elections Office will begin its one percent manual tally of votes cast in the May 3 Consolidated Local Special Election.
The one percent manual tally is a key procedure in the canvass of an election that takes place after Election Day and ensures the accuracy of the vote before the official results are certified. Official election results are not certified until the canvass is completed; the one percent manual tally is an important part of the canvass; the results of the one percent manual tally must match exactly against the electronic count before the results can be certified. The public is welcome to observe this process.
The one percent manual tally will be held at the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo. Legally required by California law, the one percent manual tally takes place during the Official Canvass of the Vote, which begins after Election Day. It must be finished within 28 days following an election.
“The canvass is the final step to the accountability of an election. It substantiates the results and provides confirmation that the conduct of the election was proper,” said San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Mark Church. “It’s the part of an election that gives citizens, interested parties, and election officials full confidence in the results.”
In order to begin the conduct of the one percent manual tally, precincts are selected with the roll of three ten-sided dice. This produces a random selection of precincts. The numbers that are rolled represent predetermined associations to precinct numbers.
“At least six precincts will undergo the one percent manual tally for the May 3 special election,” Church explained. “As this election was conducted by mail, the majority of the one percent manual tally will include votes cast by mail, while a much smaller number will be from the eSlates.”
To conduct the one percent manual tally, election officials will work in four-member teams, called precinct boards, to manually read, call out, record and tally votes. The sounds coming from the one percent manual tally where the precinct boards conduct the tally resemble chanting. Someone listening in will hear something like, “Miller, Miller, Miller, Miller” (if Candidate Miller were on the ballot) followed by “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes” or “No, No, No, No” because this election asks all voters to select the next member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and voters in three school districts whether or not to approve a parcel tax.
After the one percent manual tally is completed, election results will be certified and made official by Church. Results must be certified and presented to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and the Governing Boards of the Jefferson Union High School District, the San Carlos School District and the Ravenswood City School District. The officially certified results, known as the Statement of the Vote, will be published on the Elections website, www.shapethefuture.org once the Official Canvass is complete.
The press release is displayed in its original format. San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Elections website now resides at www.smcacre.org