'Evolution' of voting: Small percentage of local residents voting in person

Apr. 10—STOCKTON — Nearly 3,000 vote-by-mail ballots were deposited into drop boxes in the Lodi region for the March primary, officials reported this week.

San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale presented a brief report on the March 5 election during Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

Although Hale released her certified ballots report on April 2, she presented a further breakdown of voting statistics Tuesday.

Of the 27,595 ballots deposited into drop boxes throughout the county, 2,939 were taken to drop boxes in and around Lodi.

The drop box at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds received 1,345 vote-by-mail ballots, while the box at Lomeli Gardens received 357.

Some 979 ballots were collected from the drop box at the Young's Payless IGA in Lockeford, and 141 were collected at Viaggio Estate and Winery.

Another 117 were collected from the box at Clements Country Market, according to Hale's report.

Hale said the drop box at Lomeli Gardens, located at 10950 Highway 99, will be relocated for the Nov. 5 general election to optimize voter access in Lodi.

In all, Hale said 64,753 ballots were sent through the U.S. Postal Service, another 21,510 were taken to polling places, and 14,555 people voted in person at a polling place.

In preparation for November, Hale said her staff will enhance hands-on training for poll workers to minimize errors and make the election officers' manual more clear and easier to understand.

More polling places will be added as well, and election results will be reported twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, rather than three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

"The advantage to that is there is more time between updates that allows for processing of a larger volume of ballots," Hale said. "But also, Monday and Friday updates guarantee the need to work overtime and weekends. We're creating burnout for staff, so I have some concerns in how we keep staff engaged and moving forward, and keeping a positive amount of work hours."

Hale said she had 463 clerks, 435 students and 129 election night workers on March 5, as well as 153 inspectors — one for every polling place — and 37 field inspectors that traveled from polling place to polling place. During the public comment portion of Tuesday's meeting, a handful of residents claimed the election was invalid because of mistakes or errors made by election night workers, such as opening polling places late or closing early, not properly organizing ballots, feeding ballots into machines for voters, or calling in relatives to help at polling places.

Supervisor Steve Ding said he heard those concerns from Tuesday's speakers, as well as constituents, and said mistakes happen on election night and nothing runs as smoothly as expected.

"Putting that many people together to deliver what we wanted, which was more polling places... I think a good hob was done," he said. "There are some things we can fix by November."

Supervisor Tom Patti said there were cynical people throughout the county who were not going to be happy with the election results, no matter what the Registrar's Office undertook to make it successful.

"It's amazing how much cynicism there is behind the scenes," he said. "Not all systems are perfect, but we're dealing with the evolution of how people used to vote."