SACRAMENTO, Calif — While eyes are on congressional races in California to determine the balance of power, counties are still in the long and thorough process of counting ballots.
The election process is different in California compared to many other states.
Tuesday marks one week since election night, it also marks the deadline for ballots post-marked before Nov. 8 to get to their local election offices.
Since election night, workers have been processing ballots — It's not so much a race.
Their mission above all else is accuracy and transparency.
“If people are concerned that it seems like it's taking a long time for this vote to be announced, come down and see what we’re doing," said Ryan Ronco, the registrar of voters for Placer County.
He added voters are welcome to observe the election process.
"We want to make sure that people understand that this is their process," he said. "It's not my process, it's not the state's process, it's the people's process.”
In Placer County, voters have the option to cast their ballot through a traditional polling site but also received a mail-in ballot.
“We have to go through a very exacting process of making sure that that person didn’t vote in placer, but also didn’t vote anywhere else in the state before we can be able to count a ballot,” he said.
And that oftentimes means more of a wait compared to elections past, or elections in other states.
Another important deadline, ballots that got sent to the wrong county have until Wednesday to be redirected to the correct one.
So in Placer county, officials say ballots that were meant for Sacramento County are actually being hand-delivered by teams of two in order to ensure those ballots are counted.
