San Joaquin County election results delayed, no report today amid massive vote-by-mail influx, registrar says

San Joaquin County Assistant Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale said the county saw a massive influx of vote-by-mail ballots on Election Day while the rejection rate on blurry vote-by-mail barcodes holds at about 30%. She said an update on results is not expected until Thursday.

"We're going to move a little slower with reporting numbers, but we're going to make sure it's done right an accurately," Hale told The Record. "We could move fast, but we want to move diligently and follow our duplication process to a tee so that we know that we're capturing every vote as we're supposed to."

Hale said the Registrar of Voters had received about 42,000 vote-by-mail ballots by Saturday. As of Wednesday morning, she roughly estimated they'd received over 100,000. Reports on voter turnout and total ballot counts are expected from the Registrar of Voters Thursday.

The current results report is for just 20,375 ballots — 5.3% of registered voters — roughly a fifth of the estimated vote-by-mail ballots the county has received so far. Vote by mail ballots postmarked by election day will continue to be counted by the Registrar of Voters as they are received.

Many of the local races are too close to call with such a small percent of the vote counted. Despite the delays from the defective barcodes and the sudden passing of San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Heather Ditty, Hale said election night ran smoothly.

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"Even though Heather couldn't be with us on Election Day, her hard work, energy, spirit and commitment was on full display," Hale said in a statement. "I want to thank the ROV staff as they carry on through an extremely difficult time along with the hundreds of volunteer poll workers — all who have worked tirelessly to ensure every vote could be cast, counted and verified."

The defects occurred when vote-by-mail ballots were printed in a new format for the first time this election cycle due to a change in the election code, Hale said. Registrar staff first noticed the printing irregularities Friday evening, she said.

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The issue contributed to a 25-30% rejection rate for vote-by-mail ballots by the registrar's tabulation machines, according to a statement from Hale's office. The defect did not affect ballots used at polling places, Hale said.

Initial election results reported about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday included about 900 ballots for which the defect has already been rectified and that have been counted by registrar staff, according to Hale.

But the registrar has received additional vote-by-mail ballots, and rectifying and counting any that include the printing defect will likely extend beyond election night, Hale said.

"We have 30 days to certify the election ... [but] we're going to do our very best to make sure it's done sooner."

The ballots were printed by K&H Printers, a state-certified printer, according to the statement. K&H is among only a few vendors certified to print ballots in California, Hale said.

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K&H provided 13 staffers to the Registrar of Voters to help duplicate votes cast on defective ballots onto pristine ballots and count them, the statement said.

Duplication involves a two-person integrity process that takes place under camera surveillance. It's a process similar to the one used to fix ballots that are damaged, filled in too lightly, or otherwise unable to be scanned, the statement said.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Chair Chuck Winn asked for clarification on the duplication process and if there was any way for a "rogue team" to potentially alter votes in favor of a particular candidate.

Former county Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman said the system prevents anything like that from happening.

"There's no possibility of that, and if it were to happen we'd catch it and we'd certainly catch it during the process at the end of the election," Erdman said.

First, one person will read the selections from the original ballot, while the second person marks the new duplicate ballot, Hale said at the meeting.

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After the duplicate is completed, the duplicate and the original are placed into tubs and sent to the proofing tables, where a new team of two grabs a tub at random — not knowing which team upstairs did the duplication — and ensures the duplicate is an exact match to the original, she said.

Hale assured voters that fixing the problem will not impact the integrity of their vote.

"We're always going to conduct accurate and fair elections in San Joaquin County," she said.

"[Voters] can rest assured that the process is being done by California election code and we're following it to the letter of the law."

Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers business, housing, and land use. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron.

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: San Joaquin County election results delayed by blurry barcodes