LAKEPORT, Calif. — Maria Valadez wants everyone to relax.
Every election, the pesky Lake County registrar follows California’s set of voting laws and certifies thousands of ballots by the required deadline. And every year, people still complain.
“The state gave us a deadline, and we’re meeting that deadline,” Valadez said in her small Lakeport office, more than two weeks after Election Day, and several people who had cast less than half their votes. he said, sounding exasperated as staff members sat at computers reviewing signatures. “I don’t understand at all. Why the rush?”
In a state known for being slow in processing election results, Lake County, with just about 38,000 voters, is often the slowest.
Ballots ready for processing at the Lake County Registrar’s Office in Lakeport.
The rural Northern California county known for local conflicts over marijuana cultivation and some brutal wildfires has long been the slowest in the state to release voting results after elections, perplexing candidates and political commentators. There were many things I had to do.
Reasons include a lack of campaign funding in one of California’s small, low-income counties and, despite advances in technology, the meticulous efforts instilled by trusted staffers decades ago. It appears to be a combination of factors, including a desire to maintain a careful and steady process. .
“Security, transparency and accountability are very important in elections. That’s what we do here. And it’s been like this for all the years I’ve worked here.” , said Valadez, who was hired in 1995 and trained by a previous registrar hired in 1977. We will do them as we go. ”
she repeated. I will meet the deadline. ”
State law requires counties to finalize official results within 30 days of an election, this year by Dec. 5. Valadez is adamant that we will get there, but the pace of progress is astonishing compared to most parts of the country. Shortly before midnight on election night, Lake County reported just 5,784 votes cast. Thousands more have since been counted. But as of Thursday, 16 days after the election, Lake County still had more than 10,000 ballots left, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Workers at the Lake County Registrar’s Office are processing ballots, but they are slower than many other offices in submitting final election results.
“I’m not unsympathetic to the challenges that come with unfunded, top-down mandates from Sacramento, but Lake County in particular has had an absolutely egregious pattern going back at least a decade, and they’ve garnered all kinds of scorn.” said Rob Pyers, who runs the election guide California Target Book. on social media last week.
He said Lake County is “on the list of the slowest electoral divisions in the world.”
This year, it may not be so important. Unlike other California counties, where daily vote counts still fluctuate in close House races that will determine the Republican majority in Washington, Lake County didn’t have many hotly contested votes.
Still, the slow count means residents are waiting to see who will serve on the local school board, Clear Lake City Council and county board of supervisors.
Lake County’s delays have delayed results across the state in the past.
In the 2014 primary election, the race for governor was close. California voters were left wondering who was in the general election as Lake County officials took their time in finalizing votes, even as they faced a barrage of politicians frantically refreshing their browsers for the latest information. I had to wait a month to find out if I was going to compete.
Lakeport is the county seat of Lake County, which is often the slowest to report election results of all California counties.
It was in Lake County that Betty Yee announced she would advance, defeating fellow Democrat John Perez by less than 500 votes. The county met the deadline. Democracy lived on.
It’s a different world now than it was 30 years ago when Valadez began her campaign career, and her department’s speed, or lack thereof, fueled Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. giving rise to conspiracy theories.
On Wednesday, as Mr. Valadez and his staff calmly processed ballots, an angry man from North Dakota called and asked what was taking so long.
Conservatives on social media are pointing to Lake County as evidence that deep-blue California is trying to steal the election. The man, who lives 1,600 miles to the east but cannot vote in Lake County, suggested that something sinister was going on.
Valadez invited him to her office on the shores of Clear Lake, a close-knit community where security guards at the courthouse next door refer to visitors as “brats.” She has nothing to hide, she said.
“We take our job very seriously,” Valadez said of his small staff. “Honesty in work is very important to me.”
Lake County Registrar Maria Valadez works out of her Lakeport office.
California is one of the slowest states to conduct elections, not only because of its large population but also because of voting laws aimed at increasing voter participation, such as mailing a ballot to every registered voter. , voting periods may be longer for some races.
“California deserves all the scorn it receives for preserving House election results,” the New York Post exclaimed in a headline last week. The article continued:
“Hey Bud, what’s the rush? That seems to be the work ethic of Golden State employees.”
Derek Tisler, who focuses on elections as a consultant at the Brennan Center for Justice, acknowledged that Lake County has been one of the slowest counties in the nation to process ballots this year. But it’s okay, he said.
“We’re impatient, but I think we can all agree that ultimately we want to get things right,” Tisler said. “That’s the priority of election officials. It’s no wonder they’re moving forward with confidence.”
As a wall of rain hits much of Lake County this week, Lake County is struggling with meth and opioid abuse, with 73% of public school students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. “We’re doing the best we can with our staffing,” Valadez said. And then there are resource limitations. ”
Jim Emmenegger processes ballots at the Lake County Voter Registrar’s Office.
The Lake County Registrar’s Office has five full-time employees and one person is on leave. Several retirees were added as temporary support. Population: 67,000 The county does not have a machine to verify signatures and instead verifies signatures manually.
Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voters Foundation, said places like Lake County don’t have the same resources as large tourist destinations with mostly urban areas and high property taxes. He said that even though the state has issued more mandates, counties are not helping with the cost of election staff or voting equipment, making local officials’ jobs difficult and inconvenient depending on where they live. He said it has become uniform.
“It’s really frustrating to hear members of Congress complain about how long it takes to count, when in reality they could be doing something,” Alexander said. “If elections were not a chronically underfunded government service, results could have been obtained much sooner.”
Valadez also pointed to voting preferences as a potential reason for the timing of the county’s results. Unlike a growing number of counties, Lake County does not offer vote centers, a hybrid model where voters can drop off their ballots days before the election.
Valadez said voters here prefer to vote in person at their neighborhood polling place, and some are still getting used to receiving their ballots by mail.
But even if Lake County gets more funding and more voters vote early by mail, it’s unclear whether election officials will significantly change their decades-old strategy.
Diane Fridley and Jim Emmenegger process ballots at the Lake County Registrar’s Office.
Wearing a bright red pixie cut and a Carhartt flannel, Diane Fridley, 71, checked her vote this week on a computer at the Lakeport registrar’s office, scrolling through the screen to make sure there were no problems with her ballot. .
For more than 40 years, Fridley served as Lake County registrar. When she retired in 2019, she handed over the torch to Valadez. But in between babysitting her grandchildren, Fridley comes to help out around election time.
Fridley, a Lake County native, remembers when voters had to bring their birth certificates to the polls. She has lived through the days of hanging Chad. As someone who likes to eat the same breakfast every morning (a slice of apple pie) and is very careful when counting the ballots, all the changes were difficult but exciting.
“Well, it takes a little while, but you dot your I’s and cross your T’s,” she said. “We’re confident that the totals we get are correct. We’re not saying other counties aren’t doing that, but we’re going to aim for perfection.”
Fridley and Valadez exchanged a knowing glance.
“Deadlines are there for a reason,” Fridley said, echoing Valadez. “We always meet deadlines.”
