Close Races Hang In Balance As Marin Prepares To Hand-Count Ballots

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Marin County election officials will begin a public hand count of ballots Monday to verify the accuracy of the Nov. 3 election results, with tens of thousands of ballots still awaiting processing.

The Elections Department will manually tally at least 1 percent of all ballots counted by machine, using a random number generator to select batches for review, county officials announced.

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The process begins at 10 a.m. on Monday at the Marin Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Dr., Suite 121, in San Rafael. Members of the public are invited to observe.

"Democracy's core is every vote is sacred," Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona said. "The manual tally honors voters by upholding, above all else, that accuracy is of the utmost importance."

As of the county's Nov. 9 update, election workers had counted 91,634 ballots, representing about 70 percent of those received. An estimated 41,670 ballots remained to be counted.

The county scheduled additional results updates for Tuesday.

The remaining ballots could affect the final margins in local contests across Marin County, where voters cast ballots in races and measures in communities including Novato, San Rafael and Mill Valley.

In Novato, incumbent Pat Eklund led Dan Christian by 170 votes in the District 4 City Council race as of Nov. 9. The District 3 contest in San Rafael was even closer, with Daryoush Davidi leading Robert Sandoval by just 35 votes. Meanwhile, Mill Valley's Measure T, which would renew the city's municipal services tax, was projected to pass with nearly 80 percent support.

Voters whose ballot envelopes had missing or mismatched signatures have until 5 p.m. on Nov. 25, to submit corrected forms so their ballots can be counted.

The manual tally will continue on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until completed. The county must certify the election results by Dec. 3.

More information about the hand count, including the procedures and observation details, is available on the Marin County Elections Department website.