As of November 23rd, the voter turnout in San Diego County has reached 75.2%, based on the “Total Votes / Registered Voters” (turnout rate). San Diego County is one of the largest counties in California in terms of registered voters, with over 1.98 million registered voters. Similar to Los Angeles County (with over 5.74 million registered voters), the election results in San Diego County also have a significant impact on the overall California election outcomes, which will be confirmed by December 5th.
According to the San Diego County election website, there are 1,983,767 registered voters, with 1.49 million votes counted (1,491,078). Among these, 219,136 votes are from digital “voting centers” and 1.27 million votes are from mail-in ballots. The Secretary of State election website shows a slight discrepancy in the registered voter count, with 1,982,264 registered voters.
As of November 21st, there were still over 10,000 votes yet to be processed in the county, including around 8,400 mail-in ballots received before election day, approximately 100 ballots postmarked on November 5th and delivered to the counting center by the 12th, 500 provisional ballots, and 11,000 “conditionally registered voter ballots” pending verification of voter qualifications. Conditionally registered voters are those who missed the voter registration deadline in California or failed to update their registration information.
On the same day in San Diego County, Kamala Harris received 56.94% of the votes, while Donald Trump garnered 40.12% of the votes. Trump has already secured the presidential election victory nationwide.
The ballot counting process in San Diego County is similar to that of Los Angeles County, involving the scanning of mail-in ballot envelopes, signature validation, ballot partitioning, physical ballot inspection, and processing of valid ballots through scanning. The staff mentioned that the scanned ballot data is entered into the system without external network connections.
On election night, some employees wrapped up their work before midnight, while computer and scanning area staff worked until 7:00 the next morning. When reporters visited on November 9th at noon, there were not many staff members present. Observation through the glass windows of the corridor revealed that the signature verification area appeared to be inaccessible to outsiders, obscured by frosted glass.
Beginning on November 12th, the counting center started a 1% manual count of the ballots to ensure the machines accurately processed all votes. On November 14th, during the reporter’s visit, staff members were still scanning, adjudicating, and duplicating ballots on the machines. Several dozen workers were involved in the manual counting process of the sampled 1% of the ballots, drawn from mail-in and voting center ballots across different precincts, exceeding the 1% target.
Before entering the counting area, reporters were given a copy of the “Public Observation Ground Rules.” The last page of the document required a signature, though it was not mandatory. However, it stipulated that those who refused to sign the statement still had an obligation to follow the rules. The rules outlined the priority order for observers, including political parties, candidates or their groups, concerned organizations (such as the California Election Integrity Organization), and individuals. Any member of the public could observe the ballot counting process.
What challenges can observers raise during the observation? Firstly, observers can question whether the individuals handling mail-in ballots follow the prescribed operational procedures, including signature verification and ballot duplication. Secondly, observers can raise challenges about mail-in ballots if the person’s name is not on the voter registry, they are not residents of San Diego County or U.S. citizens, the individual has already voted, the mail-in ballot did not arrive on time, or the voter has been convicted of a felony. However, these challenges must be raised before the mail-in ballot envelopes are opened.
The corridor, the designated area for observer activities, showcases how elections were conducted decades ago: California’s election laws passed in 1850 mandated the general election of state Assembly members and officials on the first Monday of October each year. This was known as the general election. In addition, county and township officials were elected on the first Monday in April starting from 1852 and subsequent years. Special elections were held when positions were vacant.
What did the automatic voting machines of 1948 look like? They appeared to be divided into rows for the Democratic and Republican parties, consisting of 20 options including President, Vice President, U.S. Senators, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General.
In an era without computers and the internet, how did people report election results from various polling stations? In 1970, officials at the Kearny Mesa polling station in San Diego County called the counting center to report the election results. By 2003, San Diego County elections still utilized manual punching, with thick candidate listings. However, in present-day elections, there are significantly more candidates and explosive growth in voter numbers compared to that time.