Efficiencies and changes to election ballot processing

Early voting for California’s June 5th primary election began on Monday. The only thing with more to process than all the candidates running for Governor and U.S. Senator, are the number of ballots that must be counted in each county.

New, larger, election headquarters for Santa Cruz and Monterey are already paying off. Santa Cruz County moved from the 2nd floor to the 3rd at 701 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz, and Monterey County is now at 1441 Schilling Place, in Salinas.

“We have a lot more room for ballot counting and our vote by mail sorter is now fully operational,” Santa Cruz County Clerk, Gail Pellerin, said. Monterey County Registrar of Voters, Claudio Valenzuela says “we have everything
in one room, consolidated, and that results in more efficiencies.”

Monterey County doubled their room, which allowed for a new vote by mail processing machine. They can process three-thousand of them in a few hours instead of a full day. “(Before) we were doing it manually,” Valenzuela said.

The county also has a new look for their ballot, with color coding to more clearly identify what race you’re voting in and who the candidates are. The envelopes now include a blue stripe so they are more identifiable when sorting through your mail.

In Santa Cruz County, Pellerin says a larger space should help get their results out sooner.”More capability to do a quick sorting of all our ballots. And we have our two 400Cs up and running. So hopefully we’ll get the results out at quickly as possible.”

Many of our changes surround mail because that is simply how people are voting. It is up to 70 percent in Monterey County and about 60 percent in Santa Cruz County. “That figure goes up
every year, a little bit,” Valenzuela said. “Its so convenient. You can vote in the comfort of your home.”

Santa Cruz County has also increased the number of ballot drop off boxes to eight. Here is a list of their locations.