Body of News Release
San Rafael, CA – Voters in Marin County are eager to receive final results from the March 5 Presidential Primary Election, and staff members with the Marin County Elections Department are equally eager to deliver those totals, including 30 trained full-time and part-time staff.
Although an updated online tally will be posted by 5 PM Wednesday, March 6, and again on Friday, March 8, Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts said it might be another 10 days before all ballots are processed, though the elections staff will know much more by the end of next week.
Providing a rough estimate, Roberts said the department received about 45,000 ballots on Election Day, which will make the overall turnout close to 50% of Marin’s registered voters. However, the late arrival of ballots on Election Day also delays results because processing requires multiple steps before ballots can be counted.
“I know people are anxious about the results,” Roberts said. “The team is doing a great job sorting, verifying signatures, and removing ballots from envelopes, so we can count ballots as quickly as possible. We plan to work this weekend as well.”
Over 37,000 ballots ready for counting by Election Day, including vote-by-mail and early voting ballots, had been tabulated by election night. Mailed ballots may be received up to seven days after an election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
In addition to this week’s updates, results will be updated again by 5 PM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week and posted at www.marinvotes.org, and Wednesday and Friday evenings after that.
By law, the elections team has until Thursday, April 4, to certify and report final election results to the Secretary of State. Information about number of ballots remaining to be processed will be posted on the department’s main website starting on Thursday, March 7.