Contact:
Warren Slocum
Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Phone: (650) 363-4988 Fax: (650) 363-1903 E-mail: wslocum@smcare.org

Aternate:
David Tom
Phone: (650) 312.5222 E-mail: dtom@smcare.org

San Mateo County Elections Office to Begin 1% Manual Recount

Transparent Process to Ensure Accuracy of the Nov. 6, 2007 Vote Begins Monday

Redwood City, CA – On Monday, Nov. 19th at 8:30 a.m., the San Mateo County Elections Office will begin its one percent manual recount of votes cast in the Nov. 6, 2007 Consolidated Municipal, School and Special District Election, which will ensure the accuracy of the vote before certifying election results.

The manual recount, which will be held at the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo, is required by the California law in the 28 days following an election, and is one part of the Official Canvass of the Vote.

“The canvass is the least understood, most important part of the elections process,” said San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum. “During the canvass, we verify that the votes cast by voters in an election and represented by the semi-official results that are posted online are, in fact, correct. Official election results will not be certified until the results of this process are completed and we have confirmed the outcomes of the contests on the ballot.”

Precincts selected for manual recounting are determined randomly using three ten-sided dice to roll numbers that represent digits in precinct numbers. However, the number of precincts that will be subject to recount is not a simple matter of choosing one percent of San Mateo County’s 400 precincts.

“This was a local election, with many different races in many different cities and districts. Every race that occurred must have one percent of its votes manually recounted,” Slocum said. “More likely, there will be 30 precincts that will undergo the manual recount.”

The Elections Office will also conduct a recount of 10 percent of the precincts which had races where the margin of votes between two candidates affecting a race was half a percent or less. Beginning in February, this process will be required by the California Secretary of State, but San Mateo County is choosing to get a head start.

“With so much change in elections procedure in California for this Presidential Election Cycle, we stay ahead of the curve as much as we can,” Slocum said.

If a precinct is selected, every vote cast in that precinct is recounted, whether it was cast via eSlate electronic voting machine at the polls, paper ballot, Vote by Mail ballot, provisional ballot or early voting at a universal voting center. The law mandating that Vote by Mail ballots be included in the manual recount did not go into effect until this year; in 2006, San Mateo County was one of the first counties in California to add Vote by Mail ballots to its manual recount.

Elections officials will work in teams of four, called a precinct board, to manually read, call out, record and tally votes.

After the manual recount is completed, election results will be certified by Slocum and made official. Once official, results are accepted by various governing local bodies – such as the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, city councils and school boards.

The one percent manual recount is just one part of the Official Canvass of the Vote, which has eight components. Every ballot and vote that wasn’t counted on Election Night is processed, including Vote by Mail ballots received the day before or on Election Day, and provisional ballots. Ballot numbers and signatures on voter rosters are reconciled with the number of votes cast, and precinct supplies are inspected. For a complete explanation of the requirements of the canvass, visit http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_oc.htm.

The manual recount, including the rolling of the dice to determine audited precincts, is a transparent process open to observation by the public. The process can also be viewed online at www.shapethefuture.org via the Elections Office’s webcam. Call (650) 312-5222 if you wish to observe in person.