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The San Mateo County Elections Office began opening and processing mail-in ballots on Friday, Jan. 25.
Under the California Elections Code, jurisdictions can begin processing mail-in ballots seven days prior to an election. However, vote counts cannot be accessed or released until 8 p.m. on election day, Tuesday, Feb. 5, according to the elections office.
“Early opening of vote-by-mail ballot envelopes allows us to get a head start on the processing of hundreds of thousands of votes,” San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum said. “It allows us to bring you fast results on election night as well. Our first results are available on our Web site five minutes after the polls close.”
As of Tuesday, almost 29,600 mail ballots had been received by the elections office. The office expects that number to drastically increase in the coming days, because more than 151,000 county residents requested mail ballots. That represents around 43 percent of the registered voters in the county.
