How can an election be determined on only 40% of the vote???
California has 30 days to report all the mail-in and provisional ballots. Since closing polls saves money, the majority of voters in Mendocino County use mail-in ballots. The County Elections page disingenuously reports 100% votes counted when only 40% of votes were counted in that report.
In that 30 days when the majority of the votes are counted and NOT REPORTED, campaigns change, lives change, decisions are made, all based on counting less than half the votes. When I asked Sue Ranochak, the elected official in charge of these things, she replied that it has always been done that way, even when Marcia Wharff was in charge. Keith Wyner asked Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who referred him to IT. His answer was that it is a software issue.
If it is neglect or a software issue, it is still a matter of our public servants deliberately or negligently deceiving us, the voting public, as to the true results of the election. THE SYSTEM IS FLAWED!!!!
When asked, our county elections official, Susan Ranochak, responded:
The way we've reported our election night results haven't changed. The number of precincts reporting is always 100%. The reason for this is all precincts have reported whether it's one vote in the precinct or five hundred. It's also imperative that the polling places are included in the these results as 100% accounted for. That in no way means that all the votes are counted. That is why we identify the report as the final election night report. When the canvass is complete and the results are posted we label that report as the final official results. We do not use the term final official results until we have completed the canvass."this" refers to deceiving the voters about the results of an election for a month.
Your are correct some counties have provided additional updates. It is up to the individual registrar how many updates they will provide during the canvass. I choose to wait until the canvass is complete and only do one update. This is not something new. I've done this during my tenure as Assessor Clerk-Recorder/Registrar Of Voters. My predecessor Marsha Wharff also thought this was the best route too take so this has been going on for a considerable length of time in Mendocino County.
