LAKEPORT, Calif. – While preliminary election results were reported on Tuesday night, thousands of ballots still remain to be counted, the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office confirmed on Thursday.

Registrar Diane Fridley said that approximately 11,261 ballots – a mix of absentees and provisionals – received by her office are still to be processed, and more could still be on the way in the mail.

Fridley and her staff are now tallying those ballots as part of the 30-day official canvass period.

The breakdown of the 11,261 ballots still to be counted is as follows:

– Vote-by-mail, or absentee, ballots, received between Nov. 5 and Election Day, Nov 6: 2,526.
– Vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Nov. 6 and received on Nov. 7: 314.
– Vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day: 3,379.
– Polls provisional ballots voted at the polls on Election Day: 3,392.
– Conditional voter registration provisional ballots voted at the Elections Office: 1,236.
– Vote-by-mail ballots that require further review for various reasons: 414.

There could be still more absentee ballots on their way to the Registrar of Voters Office that aren’t included in that tally.

That’s because Elections Code says that vote-by-mail ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day shall be timely cast if the voter’s ballot is received by the voter’s elections official no later than three days after Election Day, in this case, Friday, Nov. 9, Fridley explained.

Fridley said said that “polls provisional ballots” are cast at the polling places on Election Day. Some of the reasons a voter is issued a Provisional Ballot:

– The voter’s name is listed on the Active Voter Roster List as a Vote-by-Mail Voter and the voter is unable to surrender his/her VBM ballot in order to be issued a polls ballot.
– The voter has moved within the county and did not re-register to vote at his/her new residence address.
– A voter is voting in the wrong voting precinct and not his/her assigned voting precinct.
– A first time voter who is required to provide ID, but is unable to do so.
– The voter’s eligibility to vote cannot be determined by the poll worker.

“Conditional voter registration provisional ballots” can only be issued to a person personally visiting the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office no later than the close of the polls (prior to 8 p.m.) on Election Day. These voters are Lake County residents who missed the regular voter registration deadline of Oct. 22 but they still have the option to vote in an election by conditionally registering to vote and casting a conditional provisional ballot, Fridley said.

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

She said her office will issue a report with an updated total number of ballots to be counted as well as a breakdown of ballots to be counted by unincorporated county and district contests on the ballot as soon as the information is available.