San Mateo County elections officials say they are committed to accuracy over speed

In Election Departments all over California, workers are scrambling to reach results from the June 2 election. And while a lot of political hay is being made over the delay, election officials say it's the result of the state's commitment to getting it right.

On Friday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton stood in front of the San Mateo Elections Office to express his outrage over how long the vote count was taking.

"We have this outrageous dilatory attitude where they don't have the respect for the people of California to get on with it and get this done in a timely manner," he said.

And in a Sunday interview on "Meet The Press", President Trump chimed in with his opinion that California election officials are slow because they're "cheating."

Jim Irizarry, San Mateo's assistant elections chief, said he wasn't bothered by the president's remarks.

"I don't have any opinion with respect to what the president thinks or doesn't think at this stage of the game," Irizarry said. "We have a job to do, and we do it very well."

He said everything they're doing is prescribed by state law, specifically the California Voter's Choice Act of 2016.  It is the legislative blueprint for the state's vote-by-mail system.  It says all properly postmarked ballots must be delivered by the Postal Service within a week of Election Day, known as "Election Day Plus Seven."  They're then fed into optical scanners for a preliminary tally.  

At the same time, the signature on the envelope is reviewed to see if it matches that on the voter's registration card.

"Every single ballot envelope that is signed is reviewed by a human being," said Irizarry. "We want to make sure that it's accurate and it's actually the voter who cast that ballot."

That's right. Each of the county's 400,000+ ballot signatures is evaluated visually by an election worker. From there, the qualifying ballots are rerun through the machine for a second tally. And those that have some flaw or irregularity are reviewed by a pair of workers in the "adjudication area." The most common problems are neglecting to sign the envelope or voting for more than one person in a race. They then try to contact the voter to confirm their identity and voting intent.

"We spend a lot of time with many processes to ensure that what the voter originally intended is what comes out at the final end," said election worker Emil Picchi.

It may seem like a torturous process, but the State has chosen to prioritize accuracy over speed. On Monday morning, 10,000 to 15,000 ballots were processed by lunchtime, with San Mateo's two shifts of workers keeping the operation running about 16 hours per day.

"So, the steps require time in order to ensure accuracy," said Irizarry.  "And that's the nature of the Voters' Choice Act, is to create a system that is inclusionary, it's safe, secure. And it also takes time to make sure that it is accurate for everyone."

Irizarry said he expects that all votes will be tallied by about June 12 to 15.  That will just leave a small number of irregular ballots left to be adjudicated.

Irizarry said the claims of fraud don't bother him.

"It doesn't necessarily bother me because what we are doing here is, we're defenders of democracy.  We're taking our time to do it right," he said.