Contra Costa Voters Holding Onto Mail-In Ballots Could Slow Election Count

CONTRA COSTA, CA — Fewer Contra Costa County voters are returning ballots early by mail ahead of the midterm election and more are waiting to vote in person, which could slow the vote count after Tuesday, the county's top elections official said.

Kristin Connelly, Contra Costa County clerk-recorder-registrar said the volume of ballots that have come in during early voting from the U.S. Postal Service is "way down," which usually indicates that people are "actually not voting early, and they're holding onto their ballots."

Instead, most of those ballots are being delivered through dropboxes around the county or being filled out or delivered in person on Election Day, Connelly said. She anticipates a 50% increase of in-person voting on Election Day, up from the approximately 10% of voters who usually cast their ballots in person each year.

If Connelly's projections hold, the upcoming Nov. 3 election will witness 75% turnout of registered voters in the county. That compares with 56% in the 2022 midterms and 66% in 2018, according to California Secretary of State voter participation reports.

Connelly said it's not immediately clear why fewer voters are sending their ballots by mail this year. Some voters may have concerns about the postal service's ability to deliver their ballot securely, Connelly said, and others may want extra time to vote since this year's midterms include 14 statewide ballot measures and many local measures and contests.

Contra Costa County pushed voters to submit their ballots early rather than wait until Election Day to help speed up the vote count - but that may not have worked, Connelly said.

"I wanted to empower voters to understand that they have a role in helping us count faster," Connelly said.

In May, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent letters to all 58 county election officials urging them to speed their counting of votes, according to CalMatters.

Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged Californians to cast their vote either by drop box or by voting in person to avoid postal delays.

"With Election Day just around the corner, I urge every Californian who hasn't voted to make a plan and cast their ballot early," Bonta said in a statement last week.

California has historically been slow to tally votes because of its large population and also because mail-in ballots can be postmarked on or before Election Day and received up to seven days after Nov. 3, according to the California secretary of state.

But more in-person voters will likely mean results will still be slow this year, Connelly said.

"That's absolutely correlated with why we were getting criticized to count the vote," Connelly said.

By Weslan Hansen, Bay City News
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