LAKEPORT — The two vote-counting machines in the Lake County Registrar of Voters” office jammed Tuesday night, leading to a temporary counting stoppage and incomplete totals as of the Record-Bee”s midnight deadline.
“To tell you the truth, this has never happened,” said Diane Fridley, Lake County registrar of voters. Fridley said she has not seen a comparable problem in the 33 years she has been working elections.
Lake County Administrator Kelly Cox said the problem began while absentee ballots were being counted. One machine jammed during that process, leaving one working machine to count the mail-in votes received by Oct. 28.
The second machine got jammed once the first precinct ballots were being counted, Cox said. No ballots were being counted for roughly two hours and counting resumed around 11:15 p.m., according to Fridley.
Fridley said the problem with one of the machines had to do with how the ballots had been cut, causing them to jam when placed in the machines.
Fridley said two machines were being used as of 11:15 p.m. One of the machines that jammed was fixed and a third machine was removed from storage and brought to the Registrar”s office.
The results for Lake County elections as of midnight Wednesday showed challenger Frank Rivero leading the Sheriff-Corner race 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent, and Don Anderson leading the District Attorney”s race 53 percent to 47 percent, with 21 of 53 precincts reporting.
“We knew it would be a long night and the county just made it longer,” said Doug Rhoades, Anderson”s opponent in the DA race.
Anderson said he was encouraged by the results released as of 11 p.m. “It”s looking real good for us now,” he said.
Anderson lamented the mechanical issues, saying, “Things just happen; things break down. It”s nobody”s fault.”
Incumbent candidate for Sheriff-Coroner, Rod Mitchell, said he was not discouraged by the early results. “It”s too early to tell,” he said. “We”re certainly hopeful that we”ll prevail after all of the votes are counted.”
Rivero described the mechanical issues as “unfortunate,” adding that “they are machines and machines break.”
Fridley said final results would be released sometime in the morning, but definitely after midnight today.
