Early voting up from 2016

The Tuolumne County elections office received almost twice the number of ballots for the upcoming election compared with the same time before the 2016 election.

Debi Bautista, Tuolumne County Registrar of Voters, credited the increased early voting to the safety precautions accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the current political climate, with many voters wanting to ensure their ballot is counted.

“I think there’s a lot of factors. I think people want to stay safe, so they are voting early and they’re using the drop-off boxes,” she said. “It’s voters on both sides of the fence. I think that has somewhat to do with them coming in and dropping off their ballots. People are engaged, and they want to see the process work.”

As of Oct. 15, there were 4,903 ballots received by the elections office. On Oct. 15, 2016, there were 2,738.

The general election will be held on Nov. 3.

A report was made to the Sonora Police Department on Saturday over what appeared to be a small amount of lost ballots found off of Jamestown Road, but the ballots were returned.

According to the department’s logs, a citizen found election ballots on the side of Jamestown Road about 9:30 a.m. Saturday while walking and reported the loss at 11 a.m. It does not designate whether the loss occurred in Jamestown or Sonora.

The log note stated the ballots were returned to the owners and one ballot was returned to the United States Post Office in Sonora.

Police Chief Turu Vanderwiel said some of the ballots were returned to addresses on Wigwam Road, which is linked to Jamestown Road in Jamestown.

Jamestown Road extends north and south from Highway 49 in the Shaws Flat area of Sonora to Highway 49 near downtown Jamestown.

Vanderwiel said he was not aware of a requirement to notify the elections office, but he said they still planned to make a notification to allow them the opportunity to follow up.

Additional questions related to the ballots were still pending further investigation, he said.

Bautista said she contacted the department on Monday and told The Union Democrat it only appeared a couple ballots were tem

porarily lost, and it may have been the voter who dropped them.

She added that she believed all the ballots were returned, but she planned to do additional follow-up on the incident this week.

“It wasn’t like a whole tray of ballots fell out of the post office,” she said.

She said she did not remember a time within the county where a large amount of ballots were lost.

Most Tuolumne County registered vote-by-mail voters already have their ballots in hand and almost all metrics show increased early participation compared with 2016. Most are on track to surpass 2016 numbers if they haven’t already.

The total number of registered voters has already surpassed the 2016 election, and the number still could increase because, in California, voters can register through election day to vote in person. There are currently 34,566 registered voters compared with 32,773 during the March primary and 31,395 during the 2016 election.

There were 20,341 vote-by-mail ballots received in the March primary compared with 20,282 during the 2016 election. There were 21,486 total ballots cast in the March primary, representing 65.56 percent turnout. There were 26,404 ballots cast in the 2016 election, representing 84.1 percent turnout. Primary elections have historically had lower turnout than general elections.

Bautista said there were four drop-off boxes in the county during the March primary. During the primary, 121 ballots were dropped off, she said. There are now eight dropoff boxes for the upcoming general election, and 1,500 ballots have been left in them.

“It’s zoomed up,” she said.

Drop-boxes were not used during the 2016 election.

Uncommonly, she added, Bautista has received eight emails from voters wanting to ensure their ballot was received. In March, there were 404 people signed up for ballot tracking, and now there are 3,165, she said.

Many voters are taking their ballots into the elections office, she added, because of concerns about mailing in their ballots.

The drop-off boxes are open for drop offs at all hours, every day. They are picked up Monday through Friday, once a day, she said. The drop-off boxes are located at the Tuolumne County Library in Sonora, Groveland Branch Library, Twain Harte Branch Library, MiWuk Branch Library, The Junction shopping center, Rocca Park, Columbia Elementary and the Willow Springs Clubhouse.

Bautista said at least 40 to 50 people came into the elections office to get new ballots on Monday, whether their old ballots were lost or they intended to submit their ballot in person that same day.

The elections office uses multiple safety controls to ensure each voter only submits one ballot.

“As soon as we issue you a new ballot, the old ballot is suspended as if it was voided,” Bautista said.

Bautista said each ballot has a unique number to the envelope, and those numbers are verified during the voting process. Signatures on the ballot envelopes are also verified during the process.

People may be issued a conditional ballot on Election Day if their ballot which they mailed had, for whatever reason, not been returned to the election office. Conditional ballots are not counted until all other ballots are processed and the elections office can determine if a person’s vote-by-mail ballot was counted, she said.

A person in possession of two ballots should not attempt to vote twice, she noted, or they would be referred to the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office for voter fraud.