A message from Rebecca Martinez, County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters for Madera County.
Good afternoon,
I wanted to provide you with an update with where we are with regards to processing ballots. As you probably know by now, we counted 13,417 votes on Election Day. However, in Madera County and throughout the entire State, voters chose to hold on to their vote by mail ballots until the last minute more than they ever have before. Some 12,981 vote by mail ballots were turned in late hours of June 6th and throughout the day on Election Day. That number is truly extraordinary. Never before have we had 50% of the returned ballots come in so late, it’s usually closer to 20%.
Rebecca Martinez.
On June 8th and 9th my team was able to verify signatures on 3,797 ballots. Once that was complete we immediately began the process of extracting the ballots from envelopes and just this morning we tabulated those ballots. We released the new vote totals at approximately 1:45 p.m. Additionally, we updated our unprocessed ballot report and submitted it to the Secretary of State. As of this moment we still have 9,199 of VBM ballots to process as well as over 200 conditional/provisional/damaged/etc. ballots to review/process. Processing these remaining ballots resumed immediately after the update was complete and is ongoing as we speak.
I know that many of you have questions. We do not total the unprocessed ballots by Supervisorial District or any other boundaries; these are countywide totals. Additionally, it’s impossible to tell you just how long it will take to process the remaining ballots. What I can tell you is that we will continue to process ballots in earnest until we are done. As I have promised before, we will stop and tabulate every Wednesday and Friday so that everyone gets updated vote totals on a regular basis.
Image by amberzen.
My office and the people who work for me know that accuracy is our number one priority and I am sure that is your priority as well. While I would like to be finished as soon as possible, I will never allow a perceived urgency to compromise accuracy so I appreciate your patience as we continue to work toward final results. If you have any questions please email or call the office and someone will be happy to help you.
Finally, please feel free to share this information.
Thank you,
Rebecca Martinez
County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters
“[T]he vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” — Lyndon B. Johnson
