Body of News Release
Marin County, CA – Three weeks after Marin County voters cast ballots in near-record numbers for the June 2 Statewide Direct Primary Election, the process is reaching its final milestone. On June 26, Registrar of Voters Natalie Adona will certify the official election results after a careful and thorough tabulation process, then submit the certified results to the California Secretary of State.
More than 60% of Marin County’s registered voters cast ballots in this election, marking one of the highest primary turnout rates for a statewide primary in recent years. By comparison, voter turnout was 48% in the 2018 Statewide Primary Election, and 56% for the 2022 Statewide Primary Election.
Getting to certification takes time, and for good reason. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day legally continued arriving through June 9 and were processed as they came in. Each envelope was reviewed to verify the voter’s signature against the one on file before the ballot could be prepared for tabulation. Voters whose signatures didn’t compare with the one on file or were missing were contacted and given the opportunity to resolve the issue by or before the June 24 deadline. Every voter’s eligibility was confirmed and cross-checked to ensure no one voted more than once. Provisional ballots were reviewed separately and added to the count once eligibility was confirmed.
On June 17, the department completed a public manual tally at the Marin County Civic Center during which a randomly selected sample of ballots was counted by hand as required by California law. Members of the public were invited to observe the tally, and the hand counts were consistent with the machine totals.
Across the country this year, close races and high-turnout elections have put the mechanics of vote counting under a level of public scrutiny that’s rarely been seen before. Adona said she understands why, and she’s not troubled by it.
“People should want to know how their votes are counted, and we want them to know,” she said. “We’ve had observers in this building throughout the canvass. Every step of this process is open to the public because trust is built by showing them the work. Every eligible ballot cast by a Marin voter is in that final count, and we’re ready to certify it.”
Final certified results will be posted at MarinVotes.org on Friday, June 26. The Elections Department can be reached at 415-473-6456 with questions about the canvass or any individual ballot.