Ballot count continues

The voting is over, but eight days after the General Election, the people who count the ballots are still busy counting.

“We’re in the 28-day canvass period,” said Gina Martinez of the Monterey County elections office. “This is the period in which we reconcile returns from the polling places and we process the Vote by Mail ballots that were dropped off on Election Day.”

There are currently about 60,000 ballots that are being processed in Monterey County and the vast majority of them are Vote by Mail.

“We check for the signature. Does it match the voter registration record?” Martinez explained.

Elections officials also verify voter registration status, make sure voters haven’t cast multiple ballots, and remake ballots that are damaged or can’t be read by a machine.

“We are doing our due diligence to make sure that every vote can count,” said Martinez.

By law, county elections offices have to report their final results to the Secretary of State by December 6, 2016.