The latest updated totals released for the Nov. 5 election remain unofficial, with some ballots still to be counted.
Stanislaus County Clerk Recorder, Registrar of Voters Donna Linder on Tuesday, Nov. 12 issued a statement with updated results, indicating additional vote by mail ballots have been added to the Election Night vote count. A total of 143,977 ballots have now been counted. These unofficial updated tally results have been posted on the election website, www.stanvote.gov.
Figures updated from the Election Night tally show longtime Riverbank Mayor Richard D. O’Brien maintaining a slim lead over challenger – and city council member – Rachel Hernandez, with 3,170 votes for O’Brien and 3,092 for Hernandez, while challenger Solomon Kumar trailed in third with 152 votes.
The District 2 City Council race featured only Cindy Fosi so she will return to that seat; leading in the three-way District 4 race was Stacy Call, with 798 votes based on the Nov. 12 figures released by the county. She continues to hold the lead over incumbent Darlene Barber-Martinez, who had 681 votes. Roxana Garcia had polled 501 votes.
In a contested race for the Riverbank Unified School District board, Gary Vernon was at 540 votes to lead the way for the race to fill the Area 1 seat. Ernie J. Velasco trailed with 266 votes.
Riverbank’s school bond measure proposal, Measure E, seemed headed for passage, with 2,336 ‘yes’ votes showing a sizeable advantage, with just 1,219 ‘no’ votes.
The Elections Office, explained Linder, continues to scan each vote by mail envelope to credit voters with casting a ballot and check the signature on each envelope against the signature located on each voter’s original affidavit of registration, ballots are then sorted, and prepared for count. California law now extends the time period VBM ballots must be accepted beyond Election Day increasing the number of ballots to be processed. VBM ballots postmarked timely on Election Day can be received for seven additional days.
Approximate number of ballots remaining to be processed include:
Vote by mail – 47,761 remaining from Election day and received by mail with a post mark of no later than Nov. 12.
Provisionally voted ballots - 313
Conditionally voted ballots – 3529
Miscellaneous ballots - 800
All voted ballots from a randomly selected one percent of the precincts must be manually tallied and balanced against the computer counts to verify the accuracy of the election tally system. This process is required by law. The office has begun preparing the one percent hand tally of the vote which will continue until completed. Duplication of damaged, military and overseas ballots is in process.
Elections Code §3019 and Assembly Bill 3184 requires each Registrar Of Voters office to allow time after an election for voters who have not signed their VBM envelopes, or the signature has been challenged to come into the office to sign or submit an Unsigned Ballot Envelope Statement / Signature Verification Statement. The Registrar’s office will contact each of these voters and advise them of the challenge to their ballot. Voters have until Dec. 1, 2024, to return the Unsigned Ballot Envelope Statement / Signature Verification Statement.
Per Assembly Bill 3184, all California counties are prohibited from certifying prior to Dec. 3, 2024. Therefore, the certified results for the Nov. 5, 2024 Presidential General Election will be provided on Dec. 3, 2024.
News Editor Marg Jackson contributed to this report.
