STOCKTON — An allegation from the San Joaquin County civil grand jury that election officials waited nearly a year to acknowledge vote-by-mail ballots that were received after a 2014 election are simply not true, according to the San Joaquin County registrar of voters.
Austin Erdman, registrar of voters for San Joaquin County, said his office did everything according to state law when collecting the vote-by-mail ballots during the 2014 gubernatorial primary.
“Unfortunately, there were late ballots that couldn’t be counted,” he said. “This has been an ongoing state problem, so the state of California changed the law (in 2015) that allows registrars to count ballots up to three days after an election, as long as they are postmarked (by Election Day).”
The grand jury on Wednesday released its first report of 2016, recommending the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors order the registrar to develop written policies and procedures for daily tracking of the vote-by-mail ballots picked up by the U.S. Postal Service.
In addition, the report recommends that the registrar implement a written policy to publicize election discrepancies before election certification. Both these recommendations should be done by Sept. 1, the grand jury said.
The report comes after an anonymous tip to The Record alleged that more than 800 ballots from the 2014 gubernatorial primary election were not counted.
According to the grand jury, the public had not been made aware of the uncounted ballots until it was reported in The Record, 345 days after the election.
The grand jury began investigating the allegation in July.
In doing so, the grand jury learned that the registrar sent a letter to the USPS Processing Center in West Sacramento outlining arrangements for pick-up of the vote-by-mail ballots on June 3, 2014. The center was to keep all ballots received on Election Day and give them to two county employees between 7:30 and 8 p.m. that day, according to the report.
The West Sacramento Post Office is the processing center for San Joaquin County and surrounding areas. The regular mail delivery schedule from the processing center to a post office one-tenth of a mile from the registrar's office is two or three times a day, at 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., and at 10:30 a.m. if additional mail is received.
According to the grand jury report, the normal procedure for mail pickup by the Registrar's Office is once a day, usually in the morning. But the week before an election and on Election Day, registrar employees pick up mail twice a day, in the morning and at about 2:30 p.m. And on Election Day, if ballots are received after the afternoon pickup, the post office normally would make a courtesy call to the registrar to get them.
The grand jury could not confirm that an afternoon pickup was made by registrar employees on Election Day, or if a courtesy phone call was made. The next day, registrar staff picked up two USPS trays of vote-by-mail ballots, each holding about about 400 ballots.
According to the grand jury, registrar employees had been surprised there were so few ballots received late on Election Day and equally shocked by the large number of ballots the next morning. They told Erdman, who reported it to the San Joaquin County Counsel’s Office, which instructed the registrar to isolate, label and store the ballots under video surveillance until determining whether to count them. Because the law had not yet changed to allow them to be counted, these ballots could not be counted as provided by California Elections Code.
Erdman added that his office did report the high number of late ballots to the Secretary of State’s Office soon after the 2014 primary.
Board Chairman Moses Zapien said while what happened during the 2014 primary was unfortunate, it is not unique to the county and noted many other counties experienced similar situations of receiving late ballots from the USPS. Sacramento County, for example, had some 1,200 vote-by-mail ballots that couldn't be counted, according to news reports.
He said in response to the report, the registrar has already enacted new procedures that now require a log containing additional information, such as the name and signature of the employees who pick up the mail and time of pickup.
“I appreciate the grand jury’s investigation and report on this matter,” Zapien said. “Elections are critical to the functioning of our democracy. During elections, registered voters have a right to cast their ballot and have their voice heard in our government. The registrar of voters plays an important role in overseeing the integrity of elections and the counting of votes.”
Supervisor Chuck Winn said the registrar created these new procedures well before the grand jury released its report. He said it should make future elections easier to manage when it comes to keeping track of the vote-by-mail ballots.
“I think the grand jury worked very hard to determine what exactly occurred,” he said. “From my standing, I think the outcome at the time probably wouldn’t have changed. It seems that while procedures were followed, the proper documentation wasn’t in place. But I think now that’s all been taken care of.”
Erdman, however, said even with the recommendations made by the grand jury, there will still be occurrences of ballots being postmarked late, and therefore, not counted toward the vote this June.
“Everything was done correctly,” Erdman said. “Unfortunately, with every election, there will be late ballots. There’s no way to change that. If people send their ballots in late, then they won’t be counted. It’s really that simple.”
May 18, 2016
Stockton Record
By Wes Bowers
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