LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office on Tuesday issued an updated count of the thousands of ballots – absentees and provisionals – that are still being processed for this month's election.

While a preliminary count of precinct ballots and a portion of absentee – or vote-by-mail – ballots was issued early Nov. 9, Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said that the election results are far from final.

She and her staff continue to work to finalize the Nov. 8 election results, and they have until Dec. 6 to finish processing ballots.

The monthlong period from the election to the start of December is the “official canvass,” which is the time during which Fridley must complete the process of certifying the election results. That process, she explained, includes checks and balances.

The official canvass, Fridley said, is mandated by state law to make sure the public can have confidence in the integrity of the final results.

Fridley's office does not update results between the unofficial election night results and the final certified results of the election.

“We do not interrupt the careful steps that we take during the canvass to release interim unofficial results,” she said. “Interim unofficial results have no bearing on the final outcome of the races and contests. Only final certified results will impact the races and contests.”

While Fridley doesn't issue updated results, on Tuesday she did give an updated count of ballots remaining to be processed, which totals 11,991.

That breaks down to:

• 5,238 vote-by-mail ballots received by Nov. 7;
• 3,218 vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day;
• 997 vote-by-mail ballots received by mail and counter on Election Day;
• 294 vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 8 and received by Nov. 14;
• 747 vote-by-mail ballots that require further review for various reasons;
• 1,497 provisional ballots.

Fridley said the provisional and vote-by-mail ballots requiring further review may be entirely counted, partially counted or not counted.

She also offered the following breakdown of the uncounted ballots by local contest:

• District 1 county supervisor: 2,149 vote-by-mail and 338 provisional;
• District 4 county supervisor: 1,866 vote-by-mail and 290 provisional;
• Middletown Unified School District: 1,858 vote-by-mail and 273 provisional;
• City of Clearlake (city council races, measures V, W and X): 1,191 vote-by-mail and 311 provisional;
• City of Lakeport (city council races, Measure Z): 671 vote-by-mail and 109 provisional;
• Yuba Community College Measure Q: 4,586 vote-by-mail and 763 provisional;
• Konocti Unified School District Measure Y: 2,728 vote-by-mail and 490 provisional;
• Lucerne Elementary School District Measure A: 418 vote-by-mail and 71 provisional;
• County of Lake Measure C (cannabis tax): 10,494 vote-by-mail and 1,497 provisional;
• South Lake County Fire District Measure B: 2,348 vote-by-mail and 295 provisional.

Among those races, those for District 1 supervisor and the Lakeport City Council, and the passage of Measure V, the city of Clearlake's specific road tax, are particularly close and could see changes in the results based on the final count.

In the District 1 supervisorial race's preliminary count, with 2,604 ballots processed, Jose “Moke” Simon III is leading Monica Rosenthal, 1,357 to 1,244 votes, a difference of only 113 ballots. There also were three write-ins. A total of 2,487 ballots in that race remain to be counted.

In the Lakeport City Council race, where there are three seats available, only 28 ballots separate the third- and fourth-place finishers in the preliminary count.

Incumbent Kenny Parlet is leading the field with 685 votes, followed by Timothy Barnes, 592; George Spurr, 532; Ted Mandrones, 504; Michael S. Green, 354; and Nathan Maxman, 309.

A total of 1,409 ballots in that race were recorded in the preliminary count, with 780 ballots still being processed.

Measure V, a one-cent specific tax projected to annually generate $1.6 million for road improvements in Clearlake, needs a supermajority of at least 66.7 percent to go into effect.

In the preliminary results, in which 2,560 ballots were counted, it had a more than two-to-one approval margin and passed the supermajority narrowly to reach 67.3 percent, or 1,736 yes votes, compared to 32.7 percent or 842 no votes.

It must maintain that slim margin as the city's remaining 1,502 ballots are counted.

The California Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday that approximately 4,116,644 ballots remain to be processed statewide.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.