SOLANO COUNTY, Calif — Every election year, it's a fight to get volunteers out to polling places. Half of the counties ABC10 spoke with Tuesday said voter turnout is currently lower than the numbers they saw at the same time in 2020.
However, each county has something unique to offer voters this year to help make sure everyone casts their vote and feels safe and secure about the process.
The Solano County Assistant Registrar John Gardner said for the past six months they’ve been receiving security briefings from the FBI and California Secretary of State analyzing election issues in other states and coming up with solutions.
From recent ballot box fires in the Pacific Northwest to issues with mail thefts, that’s why in Solano County no ballot box is ever left alone.
“Ballot boxes unattended, that’s not how we work here. There are always people, your ballot are picked up every day to minimize that window if there was some disruption,” Gardner said.
Solano County also has a ballot courier service, so if you’re worried about getting a ballot in time or have experienced mail theft, couriers can help.
“We can deliver a ballot to a city clerk’s office for a voter to pick up the next day,” Gardner said.
While Solano and Sutter counties don’t have live streams available, both counties give tours of the election center during business hours and have viewing areas for people to watch the process. Sutter County also has a new resource this year. Registrar Donna Johnston said they paid for the new translator service using grant money.
“It’s available in 85 languages. You speak to it in English and then it will automatically translate in both a written form and an audible form,” Johnston said.
New this year to increase security and transparency, Placer County has begun live streaming their election office. You can view it here.
They are also the only county of the four to report higher turnout than 2020 so far. Ryan Ronco, the Placer County Registrar, attributes the turnout to their new process Sign, Scan, Go.
“Bring their vote-by-mail ballot to a voting center, we check to make sure they haven’t voted anywhere else in the state. If they haven’t, they can take their ballot out of the vote-by-mail envelope and put it right into the scanner. They get to see their ballot counted right in front of them,” Ronco said.
Ronco also believes the adoption of the Voter’s Choice Act (VCA) in 2023 has helped the process.
This moved elections from one day of in-person voting at assigned polling places to regional vote centers that will be open for four or 11 days, depending on the location. With this adoption of VCA, Placer County voters can now cast their ballots at any one of 29 vote center locations, seven of which opened for in-person voting on Oct. 26. The remaining 22 locations will open Nov. 2.
Yolo County now has more screens in their office for people to come see the process first hand, especially ballots with inconsistencies that are stopped by the machine. Registrar Jesse Salinas said this is the adjudication process. An example would be if someone crossed out the first candidate they voted for by mistake, then selected another. That would be reviewed.
“Recently put in some large screens in our office where we are actually doing the adjudication, so if there is uncertainty about the intent of voter, we have a process where two individuals go through and evaluate it. And we attached that process onto some larger screens so people can review it and see what we are doing,” Salinas said.
Yolo County is also offering tours and wants people to reach out to them online at elections@yolocounty.gov to set up a time. Registrar Salinas leads several tours himself.
In regard to turnout, Sutter and Solano County said they are seeing lower numbers than 2020. Placer County has higher numbers and Yolo County saic they are currently above the state average.
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