MODESTO, Calif. — As candidates and campaigns wait for the good or bad news days after Election Day, there’s one clear winner in Stanislaus County: in-person voting.
"We’ve never seen more than 10,000 voters turn out in person," said Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Donna Linder. "This election we had over 25,500 go to our vote centers in person."
In the county, six voting centers opened ten days before Election Day, but Linder says the record-breaking in-person turnout was mainly due to people showing up on Tuesday.
"We did have long lines," Linder said. "But voters seemed happy and positive to just be able to vote."
In a county where more than 293,000 people are registered to vote, 25,000 isn't the majority though. Linder expects that once voter turnout numbers are finalized, the majority of ballots cast will have been through the mail.
"I voted by mail," said Stanislaus County voter Shawn Callahan. "I didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to fit in work and voting... it was a pretty important election."
Even though it’s been days now since voting centers closed, the work is far from over for election workers in Stanislaus County. Thursday morning, they were counting ballots, and by the afternoon, they were adjudicating.
"We usually hire between 150 to 200 part-time seasonal staff," Linder said, noting that many vote-by-mail and provisional ballots still need to be processed. "The signatures have to be verified. Ballots in Stanislaus County are sorted... then they're opened, flattened and run through our scanners."
In California, counties must certify their results by Dec. 5, so even though the campaigns are now over, for some workers in Stanislaus County, it's still a race to the finish.
"Our hours are long," Linder said. "We have quite a bit still to do and some of our local races are tight, so they're excited to see results."
Watch more from ABC10: California Election Results 2024: Razor-thin House races in the Central Valley
