When you return your vote-by-mail (vbm) ballot to yolo county elections, your ballot flows through specific steps before being totaled and added to the results.
what are these steps?
1. classification
Yolo County Elections operates a high-speed mail sorting machine called an “Agilis” manufactured by Runbeck Election Services, Inc. the agilis first scans the barcode on the returned ballot envelope and takes a photo of the voter’s signature. a 45 second video of the agilis can be seen on our youtube channel.
then the ballot’s next step through the agilis takes place after the signature on the envelope has been verified or challenged. verified ballot envelopes are sorted into constituency groups and stored for opening. challenged ballot envelopes are kept in a secure location, they should not be counted unless and until the challenge is resolved and the signature is verified.
2. signature verification
as soon as the envelopes first pass through agilis, yolo county election staff compares the signature on the envelope with the signatures on file in the voter’s registry. our staff is trained to look for similar characteristics such as letter height, slant, and spacing. if the signatures match, the ballot is qualified to be counted.
If there is a voter eligibility challenge or signature mismatch, the ballot envelope is marked for further review by supervisors and management. a challenge requires the voter to solve the problem before the ballot can be counted. many challenges occur simply because the voter did not sign the return envelope. most other problems are due to the signatures not matching closely enough. If there is a problem of any kind, Yolo County Elections contacts the voter with a letter to help “heal” the challenge. we also make calls and send emails if we have that contact information on file. we provide all the instructions a voter needs to resolve the issue and encourage voters to contact our office if they have any questions.
To keep track of your vote-by-mail ballot (when it is mailed, received, and counted) and receive notifications about its status, register with the california secretary of state service at wheresmyballot.sos.ca. gov to receive automatic notifications via email, sms (text), or voice call about your ballot.
3. opening
Opening the envelopes, extracting the ballots, and preparing them for scanning is one of the most labor-intensive steps in the process. Yolo County Elections operates two OPEX Corporation ballot extraction machines. Extractor teams of two or three staff members work at each machine, processing up to 300 vote-by-mail return envelopes at a time. this higher speed precision process can be seen on our youtube channel in a 30 second video.
First, the opex machine cuts the vbm return envelope and uses a small amount of air suction to open the envelope, allowing a team member to extract the voted ballot. this is the moment when the identity of the voter is forever separated from the ballot and the voting selections.
The empty envelopes are then bundled together with the ballots removed but still folded. a team of two staff members counts and records the number of envelopes and ballots. the envelopes are then set aside and stored during the legal retention period.
Finally, the ballots are unfolded and briefly inspected to make sure they’ll pass through the voting system’s scanner without a hitch. teams remove stubs attached to ballots. Physically damaged ballots are sent to ballot duplication teams comprised of two staff members who will manually duplicate the voter’s marks onto a new ballot. ballot duplication uses tracking numbers and quality control checks to ensure accuracy and transparency. batches of ballots ready to scan go to the next step in the process.
4. scan
Yolo County Elections operates the Hart Intercivic Verity Voting Team to scan ballots, front and back. all components of the verity system are stand-alone and are not connected to the internet or the county computer network. Computers connected to the scanners store the images of the ballots and vote selections, but the results aren’t added up until after the polls close on Election Day. this feature of the voting system allows us to start scanning ballots before election day.
5. ballot review
Once the ballots are scanned, a two-person ballot “adjudication” team reviews all questionable markings to ensure votes are counted as the voter intended. Yolo County uses the California Use Procedures for Verity System and the California Secretary of State Manual for Determining Voter Intent (Uniform Vote Counting Standards).
6. election night results
the total of the votes occurs after 8:00 p.m. on election day when initial election results reports are generated and made public. ballots continue to be processed, votes counted, and results shared until the election is certified. certification periods differ depending on the type of election and range from 28 to 30 days.
7. poll and final results
Initial unofficial results are posted on the yolo county elections website around 8:15 p.m. m. on Election Day and generally include the results of vote-by-mail ballots received by our office prior to Election Day. after initial posting, updated results are posted on our website based on the progress of the count. posts are advertised on the county’s social media platforms. During the period between the close of the polls and the certification of election results, Yolo County Elections conducts a full scrutiny of election materials to verify that all eligible ballots are accurately counted.