County voter turnout increases, but only slightly By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review November 10, 2004 There was nothing high-tech to the glitch that stalled election-night reporting. It was all a matter of the relative isolation of the coast. More than two hours after polls closed, it appeared the next three trustees for the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District would be determined by a mere handful of votes from five of its seven precincts. At 10:30 p.m. that all changed. The elusive last two precincts filled out the picture. When the county elections office posted its final election night results, the gap between candidates and the vote tallies soared comparatively. It jumped from 18 votes total to a whopping 1,668 in the La Honda-Pescadero district. That late posting was due entirely to the geographic distance, and winding roads that separate San Mateo from the small school district, county Elections Manager David Tom said. Many of the precincts in the South Coast region are mail-in ballot only, he said. The remaining two precincts use machine memory packs that had to be driven to the elections office in San Mateo before vote counts could be posted. Meanwhile, despite trumpeting pundits' claims, the numbers debunk one myth that has become widely accepted as fact. Voter turnout was up, but not over the top. More San Mateo County residents voted in this election, but an increase in voter registration kept turnout growth to a minimum. Countywide, there were fewer than 30,000 new registered voters in this presidential election when compared to the 2000 election. The turnout among registered voters only increased 1 to 4 percentage points. During the course of the next two to three weeks, the county Elections Office will be counting an additional 60,000 to 70,000 votes, Tom said. More than 11,000 of those uncounted votes are provisional ballots, he said. The remaining uncounted votes are absentee ballots. The number of provisional ballots requested at county polling places was more than the county expected. The requests caused some temporary envelope shortages for those ballots, Tom said, adding that the required supplies were filled within five minutes. When asked if all provisional ballots would be counted regardless of being filed at incorrect precincts, Tom was quick to respond. "Of course, this is California," he said. "We lead the nation in provisional ballot voting." The process has been available to California voters for at least a decade, he said. There were 368,410 registered voters in last week's election with 228,389 votes counted as of election night. The additional uncounted votes, which will dramatically increase the turnout numbers, won't be added to that total for at least two weeks, Tom said. If the additional vote numbers approach 70,000, that would equate to at least an 80.99 percent turnout among registered voters. If the uncounted votes only amount to 60,000, the turnout would be 78.27 percent. The 2000 presidential election garnered a 77.17 percent voter turnout. Numbers on Coastside voter turnout won't be available until all ballots cast are counted, Tom said. Anecdotally, many poll workers were convinced the turnout was high. At the El Granada Elementary School voter turnout was clearly up from the most recent elections, but a comparison to the last presidential election offers a much different conclusion. "I've never seen anything like this and I've done it three times in a row," Anne Riegel said. "It started off (in the) morning; they were lined up even before we opened up." Paul Perkovic said, "Usually there are slack times - and you don't have lines and you don't feel rushed." Home