While San Benito County waits for the ballots to be tallied from Tuesday's election, head elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez said at the work week's end that "most of it will be finished on Monday."
In order for vote-by-mail ballots to be counted, signatures must be inspected, then the ballots need to be looked over to ensure there are no obvious errors before they're placed in the proper precinct, Gonzalez said. This is all done by the absentee board, members of which are paid, deputized people. Assistant Clerk Recorder Lillian Perreira said there were 13 board members there Friday and 15 on Thursday.
Perreira said that the county is continually counting ballots each day and that this is "more ballots than they've ever had." She said that many other counties are experiencing a formidable amount of ballots and some are still counting.
On Thursday, nearly two days after polls closed, elections officials had tabulated about 4 percent of vote-by-mail ballots, and by Friday, there were 14 percent of them counted.
That was the only thing done and tabulated by the board," Gonzalez said.
Colin McConville Colin McConville is a reporter with the Hollister Free Lance. You can reach him by email or at (831) 637-5566.
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