Elections officials ask court to add 10 unopened ballots
The Kern County Elections office filed a petition with the Kern County Superior Court on Monday after discovering unopened 10 mail-in ballots they say are eligible for counting.
“The Kern County Auditor-Controller-County Clerk’s office remains dedicated to counting every eligible vote cast in the November 8, 2022 General Election,” Kern County Registrar of Voters Mary Bedard wrote in a news release.
“Once the ballots were determined to be eligible, we had to determine what our legal options were,” Bedard explained in a later email. “The petition was filed and press release sent out once we knew what we could legally do to remedy the situation.”
The 2022 midterm election ballots were certified on Thursday and recognized at a 9 a.m. county Board of Supervisors meeting that convened a special session. The California Secretary of State will certify results on Dec. 16.
The petition asks for an extension to the certification deadline, to allow the ballots to be included as “a supplement to the certification of the results.”
According to Bedard, this batch of ballots is too small to change the outcome of any particular election.
“There are no contests in which the final result will be altered by the inclusion of these ballots,” Bedard wrote in the release. “All contests were decided by margins larger than the outstanding number of ballots to be counted.”
Bedard did say that five of the ballots include the 16th Senate District race, which ended with Sen. Melissa Hurtado as the decided victor by a meager 20 votes.
Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, was sworn into the state Senate on Saturday. In an emailed statement, she acknowledged her victory. “Thank you to the voters who have put their trust in me,” Hurtado wrote. “I look forward to continuing my work fighting for the Valley, providing vital water resources, expanding access to healthcare, ensuring safe communities and quality education for all our children. Together, we can make our Valley strong.”