County officials go over Election Day hiccups

Larger-than-expected voter turnout, election board no-shows cause ‘minor’ issues

The Aug. 2 primary election drew a higher voter turnout than usual for midterm elections and a larger-than-expected in-person attendance on Election Day.

This caused a couple of issues. Yuma County Elections Director Tiffany Anderson reported the issues, and the Board of Supervisors brought up some of their own concerns.

Nonetheless, the supervisors certified the results of the primary election and nominated the candidates who received the largest number of votes in each contest, which entitles them to have their names placed on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

“I’m happy to report that the election was very successful here in Yuma County,” Anderson said.

She noted that 24.43% of registered voters cast ballots in the primary election.

“This is actually higher than our historical trend of midterm primaries, which is around 22%,” Anderson said. “We also had a larger-than-expected in-person attendance on Election Day. It was actually more than twice the in-person turnout as our 2020 primary election.”

This led to some “minor issues” like running low on ballot paper and provisional envelopes. That was quickly remedied by having runners take the necessary supplies to those vote centers.

Citizens had the opportunity to vote in one of eight vote centers, including three mega centers. All vote centers had low wait times, except for the Cesar Chavez Cultural Center at the end of Election Day.

“This was due, in large part to, one, the higher-than-expected in-person turnout, as well as half of our election board not showing up on Election Day,” Anderson

said.

She noted that her department will plan the general election with the expectation that the trend of larger in-person attendance on Election Day will continue.

An official hand count for the primary election was held on Saturday, Aug. 6. All three Yuma County political parties participated, including Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians.

Participants hand-counted 1,700 ballots, including three randomly drawn early ballot batches of about 300 and two randomly drawn vote centers, the Martin Luther King Jr. Career Center and St. John Neumann Catholic Church, the latter being the most attended vote center on Election Day.

In addition, four randomly drawn races were hand counted, which included the contests for Republican corporation commissioner, Republican state treasurer, Republican U.S. representative for Congress, both districts 7 and 9, and Republican state representative District 25.

“Out of all of those, almost 1,700 ballots, only one discrepancy was found,” Anderson said.

She explained that a mark was made outside the bubble on the ballot so the tabulator didn’t count the vote. Consequently, that vote center was off by one vote.

“That leaves us with a 99.91% accuracy with our tabulators,” Anderson noted.

Chairman Tony Reyes asked whether the general election would require more staffing and equipment if more voters were expected.

“Correct. Our midterm generals tend to be in the low 40s for voter turnout. So we’re expecting approximately double the turnout that we saw for the primary,” Anderson replied.

She explained that the number of machines and staffing would be increased close to, if not equal, to what is required for a presidential general election.

“The increase in in-person dictates that we fully staff just as if it’s a presidential cycle just to be certain we don’t have long wait times,” she said.

Vice Chairman Jonathan Lines asked what the department would do about election board no-shows. “In anticipation of higher-than-expected in-person turnout, if we staff it as if it’s a presidential general and a couple people don’t show up per location, we will still be more than fully staffed for this election,” Anderson noted.

Reyes had issues with a ballot drop off box placed inside the library, which was closed Saturday through Monday, leaving the area with no drop boxes for three days, which could have potentially deterred voters from dropping off their ballots.

He acknowledged that the ballot boxes had been placed inside the library due to safety concerns, but he questioned whether those concerns had to do with the ballots themselves. “I mean, did you get anybody like tearing up ballots or doing something to the ballot boxes?”

Reyes also noted that San Luis does not have home mail delivery or pick up. “So that whole area was left with nowhere to deposit their ballots until the day of the election. We’ve got to discuss that a little further.”

Anderson pointed out that this was a decision made by the elected county recorder, not her office. “That may be a discussion that you could have with Mr. Colwell before the general election, however, there were substantiated concerns over both voter and observer safety when it came to our ballot drop boxes and we felt that the best decision at this time was to move them inside the library where patrons could feel safe dropping those ballots off,” she said.

Reyes said that they would talk later “about the fact that in areas in South County, there is no home delivery, no home pickup for the post office. So it is a different area. It is too long of a discussion to have here. We’ll have it in the future with the recorder and yourself.”

Richard Colwell, the county recorder recently appointed by supervisors, praised workers in both the Elections Services and Recorder’s Office for their work.

“Tiffany and her team, there’s only four of them, and they were in elections from A to Z, getting out there and getting the equipment out there in advance and setting it up, testing it and making sure it’s all running for the 6th. Also, the other section, the Voter Services section, I was amazed at the work that they do behind the scenes,” he said.

The Recorder’s Office was called in to help as needed. “I’ve seen the quality of people working in that office. There are only 14, including me. They are among the most competent, caring and professional individuals that I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to work with. And I’m certainly not up here to take any credit for that. I’m here to give the credit to the people who truly deserve it,” Colwell said.

Anderson also expressed appreciation for staff and election workers. “Our office already has positive feedback from election workers and our political party observers so I’m personally very proud of that,” she said.

“And, also, we couldn’t do this without the support of our other county departments. So I extend the highest level of gratitude to County Administration, Facilities Management, Information Technology Services, Communications, Human Resources, Library Districts and all law enforcement agencies throughout the county. We are truly demonstrating that the county is one team, and we’re all in it together to make sure that our elections here locally run smoothly,” she added.