In San Diego County, the Registrar of Voters maintains detailed information online about all it does to ensure election integrity and transparency.
Every detail, from the type of software the county uses to the registrar’s chain of custody procedures, is outlined and available for public review.
It’s still a lot of information to parse through and understand, so here are some answers to frequently asked questions.
💡 Heads up, each state administers elections slightly differently so this information only applies to California and San Diego County.
- What is the deadline for absentee or mail-in ballots to be received in order to be counted?
- How do election officers ensure voter registration lists are up to date?
- What kind of software/hardware is being used to count ballots?
- Will ballots be hand counted as well?
- What security measures are in place to protect the secrecy of the ballot and prevent under/over counting?
- When will the results become official? How long does it take?
- How do election officials certify the election results? What happens if they don’t certify the election results?
- How do election officials ensure that an absentee or mail ballot has come from a legitimate voter and not been tampered with?
What is the deadline for absentee or mail-in ballots to be received in order to be counted?
Vote-by-mail return envelopes must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the registrar of voters office no later than Nov. 12, 2024, in order to be counted.
You can drop your ballot off in any out-going mailbox or at one of several drop-boxes throughout San Diego County. Find a ballot drop off location near you here.
How do election officers ensure voter registration lists are up to date so that people who are not authorized to vote are not voting?
The registrar of voters office conducts daily, weekly and monthly file maintenance to ensure voter rolls are up to date, according to the registrar’s website:
- Update rolls as is required by state and federal law
- Cross-check registration information with data from other government agencies
- Update registration changes received from voters
- Cancel registration when official records or family notification show a voter has died
- Cancel registration when data from the court system shows felony or court ordered cancellation
To ensure that deceased persons are not voting, the registrar cross checks information with the California Secretary of State, San Diego Superior Court Jury Administration and the County Health and Human Services Agency.
To ensure noncitizens do not vote, the San Diego County Superior Court’s Jury Administration Department informs the registrar of noncitizenship claims received on jury summons notices.
What kind of software/hardware is being used to count ballots?
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters uses Dominion Voting Systems software.
Here’s a full list of everything the registrar uses to count ballots:
- Democracy Suite 5.10A Election Management System V. 5.10.50 (software)
- ImageCast Central V. 5.10.2.1 (software)
- HiPro Twain Driver 1.2.2.1 (optical scanner)
- ImageCast X V. 5.10.12.4 BIOS 2.04J.01
- ImageCast Voter Activation V. 5.10.50.83
- Mobile Ballot Printing V. 5.10.50
By law all of this equipment has closed connections. To prevent hacking, tabulation machines and the voting system are not connected to the internet or any other network.
Will ballots be hand counted as well?
Yes, but not all of them. In order to verify the accuracy of vote tabulating machines the registrar counts 1% of mail-in and vote center ballots. This process can be observed by the public.
A five-day public notice is posted on sdvote.com indicating when and where the manual tally will take place, as well as the random draw of ballots to be manually tallied.
What security measures are in place to protect the secrecy of the ballot and prevent under/over counting?
Once received by the registrar, ballots remain sealed in their envelopes until they are sorted, date- and time-stamped, and the voter’s signature is verified. At that point, the return envelope is checked against a statewide database to ensure the voter has not voted anywhere else in California.
Then, when a ballot is removed from its envelope the side displaying voter information is never visible. Empty envelopes are taken to a secure room to be filed and stored.
The ballots are then transferred to the Ballot Tabulation Room to be counted.
When will the results become official? How long does it take?
On Jan. 6, 2025, U.S. Congress will meet to certify the Electoral College results in the presidential election. That’s 62 days after Election Day.
For statewide and local races, the election is certified 38 days after Election Day by the California Secretary of State on Dec. 13, 2024. Results in San Diego County become official 30 days after Election Day on Dec. 5.
The Secretary of State and the San Diego County Registrar of Voters begin releasing preliminary ballot counts after polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2024. This information is posted online and made available to media organizations, such as KPBS. (You can see live results on the KPBS Voter Hub.)
On election night results will be periodically updated until all vote-center ballots are counted. After that, the registrar will update results on the following schedule:
- By 6 p.m., daily, Nov. 7 through Nov. 9.
- By 6 p.m., Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Nov. 11 through Nov. 15.
The registrar can update results outside of this schedule at their discretion.
How do election officials certify the election results? What happens if they don’t certify the election results?
After election night, registrar staff review all materials and ballots to reconcile the total number of votes cast. By law, officials have 30 days to certify the election. California Elections Code Section 15372 lays out this duty as mandatory and nondiscretionary, meaning they cannot refuse based on personal opinion or unfounded claims of fraud.
"The elections official shall prepare a certified statement of the results of the election and submit it to the governing body within 30 days of the election or, in the case of school district, community college district, county board of education, or special district elections conducted on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of odd-numbered years, no later than the last Monday before the last Friday of that month.”California Elections Code Section 15372
For the presidential election, U.S. Congress meets on Jan. 6, 2025 to certify the Electoral College tally. In 2021, a handful of Republican Representatives and Senators who supported former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud voted against certification, and a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the proceedings.
This year, most California Republicans say they won’t commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election, according to reporting from CalMatters.
How do election officials ensure that an absentee or mail ballot has come from a legitimate voter and not been tampered with?
A voter’s signature on the outside of the ballot envelope is the primary method used to verify the authenticity of a ballot, according to the registrar’s website.
Registrar staff compare the signature from the ballot return envelope to the signature on file for the voter from their voter registration record. If the signature is a match, the ballot return envelope is accepted.
If the signature doesn’t match, the envelope remains unopened and a form is mailed to the voter requesting that they sign and affirm that they are the person who voted. Once the form is received, the signature is verified again.
