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The San Mateo County Elections Office still has over 100,000 primary election ballots to process, nearly 48 hours after polls closed for the June 2 primary, according to new data released late Thursday, June 4.
Since election night tabulation ended at 12:30 a.m. on June 3, the Elections Office reported it has processed 10,750 mail-in ballots, enough to create a new frontrunner in the close race for county superintendent of schools. Yet the office still has more ballots outstanding than have been counted and the possibility of additional mail-in ballots arriving.
The county has about 95,000 ballots left to process that arrived on or before election day, along with 7,800 ballots received after election night. Ballots postmarked on or before Election day and received within seven days are valid and must be counted under state law.
The elections office also needs to process 410 conditional ballots and wait to see if another 477 voters cure mistakes on their ballots by June 24.
For some races, the addition of 10,000 ballots to the ongoing vote count made little difference. However, in the race for County Superintendent of Education, the lead flipped in the tight race in the two days since polls closed. One election night, Chelsea Bonini was ahead of Héctor Camacho but as of Thursday, Camacho is in the lead with 50.57% to Bonini’s 49.43%, with only 838 votes separating the candidates.
Previously, Bonini was leading with 50.48%, 615 votes ahead of Camacho.
The latest tally made little difference in the race to head San Mateo County’s Assessor, Clerk-Recorder and Chief Elections (ACRE) Office. County Supervisor David Canepa’s lead shrank minutely from 54.7% to 54.61%, but he’s still nearly 7,000 voters ahead of his opponent, ACRE’s current second-in-command Jim Irizarry.
Canepa declared victory in a press release on Thursday.
“I’m humbled and grateful to the people of San Mateo County for their support and I promise to make them proud in this new role,” Canepa wrote.
Irizarry did not comment on Canepa’s declaration.
“Our campaign is feeling very positive and encouraged,” he wrote in a statement. “Out of respect for the voters who took the time to cast their ballots, we’ll wait to comment further until all votes have been counted.”
The Elections Office will release its next update by 4:30 p.m. on June 5.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated with comment from Irizarry.
I personally find it very telling of the complete and pervasive incompetence that governs California. The fact that all of the ballots that arrived by Election Day aren’t counted within 24 hours is truly pathetic. Combined with the state’s 2024 making it a law that prohibits local governments from checking IDs really makes one question the integrity of the whole process.