LAKEPORT — This month”s primary election results are now official.
The Board of Supervisors received Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley”s certified statement of the election”s results late Friday. As a result, the board has declared the county offices and central committee members elected, with the exception of the District 3 supervisorial seat. That position will be decided in a runoff in November.
In Lake County, 13,722 absentee ballots were issued and 7,901 were returned, Fridley reported. Of the number of absentee ballots issued, 150 were second-issued due to voters spoiling or losing their first ballot.
The total percentage of people voting was 41.9 percent, categorized by precinct ballots (ballots cast at a polling place site) at 18.2 percent and absentee ballots at 23.8 percent.
The Registrar of Voters office continues to work on the June 6 election, counting the vote/no votes and checking the rosters where voters sign in to make certain they match the numbers on the ballot counters.
This work should be completed in mid July, just in time for the nomination period on July 17 for the Nov. 7 general election.
The electronic voting machines, which cost the county a total of $565,725.73, provide permanent record of votes cast as they are now required to have a paper trail. Other counties previously had touchscreen systems which did not provide permanent records and their systems had to be upgraded.
“Here we have the best of both worlds,” said Fridley, “as we have paper ballot cards which can be counted by the automated ballot counters.”
A portion of the cost of the electronic voting machines will be recovered from Proposition 41 monies and the remaining amount will be paid by HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funds because HAVA requires that each county polling place has at least one machine that is accessible to both visually and physically impaired voters.
Contact Cynthia Davis at cdavis@record-bee.com.
