Rob AriasThe Alameda County Registrar of Voters is again under fire for their lethargic tallying of votes.
While other counties have declared winners and are substantially closer to completing their counts, Alameda County has stood out again for their ineptness. “While all of our surrounding counties are posting a greater number of results. I share your dismay,” County Supervisor Keith Carson provided in a press release.
Yesterday’s update added less than 5,000 ballots for the entire county or about .6%. The current tally of 233K ballots is about one-third of the anticipated 700K votes cast estimated by election officials.
This is not the first time the agency has been called out for their incompetence. After the 2022 election, Carson helped push for a 13-person commission to oversee the troubled agency.
Clearly, this has not been the solution.
“As a single Board Member, I have attempted to do all that is possible to bring greater transparency to our election process, from establishing an Elections Commission to requiring the ROV to release the cast vote record every night starting on Election Day,” an agitated Carson elaborated. “Months ago, in public meetings, I asked the Registrar if he had a sufficient workforce and resources in order to carry out the November elections; his response was ‘yes.’ Unfortunately, that appears not to be the case.”
For a region that prides itself as the tech capitol of the world, this is perplexing to most that we are seemingly dead last in the basic task of counting votes.
In fact, 46 states have surpassed 90% of their tallying according to a graphic shared by Empower Oakland Digital Director Gagan Biyani. California is at 56% as of last night and Alameda County has tabulated under 30%.
A small example of sheer incompetence in California:
— Gagan Biyani 🏛 (@gaganbiyani) November 7, 2024
We have the lowest % of votes counted in the entire country and its not even close.
36 hours after polls close, CA has 56% of votes counted 😱. 46 states have 90%+ counted. In Alameda County, we have only 30% (!) – one of the… pic.twitter.com/r4I7LhoxHQ
“I know everyone is anxious and frustrated by the vote count process for Tuesday’s election in Alameda County,” Carson further provided in his statement. “Many have contacted my office to express their dismay/anger regarding the small number of votes that have been counted to date.”
Carson is retiring after three decades on the Board and Emeryville Councilmember John Bauters is currently leading Oakland Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas to replace him. This consequential race is among the many that voters are eagerly awaiting a result.
This ambiguity has left candidates, voters, and the media in the dark and unable to share important updates.
In Emeryville, a mere 58 votes separate the third and fourth-place city council finishers. It’s likely that this could hold but with a fraction of votes tallied, it’s too early to officially call. The Thursday update to these totals provided zero vote increases in totals to either the council or school board races.
Carson went on to acknowledge that despite his and others’ efforts, little could be done to expedite this this election.
“While there isn’t anything that can be done immediately to expedite the current process, rest assured that I will continue to push for increased transparency and for information to be immediately shared with the residents of Alameda County, and beyond,” he provided.
Chief Information Officer and Registrar of Voters for Alameda County Tim Dupuis blamed the lag on mail-in ballots and asked for continued patience.
“Yesterday we were finish off the in-person voting and transitioning back to processing Vote by Mail,” Dupuis told The Oaklandside reporter Eli Wolfe by email. “Today was the start of the Vote by Mail processing. It takes some time for the ballots to be sorted, signatures verified, opened, extracted, scanned, adjudicated, and then finally counted. We will have another update tomorrow that will have more votes.”
Many are calling on Dupuis to resign for his opaque approach to performing his job. A job he is receiving nearly $500,000 a year in total compensation to perform.
Three weeks to tally a lopsided election, in one of the richest counties in the state. Give him a call. Tim Dupuis, Head Registrar of voters (510) 272-6933
— Gettison (@GettisonSean) November 7, 2024
Recalls up in the air; Alameda Co Registrar of Voters warns it's too soon to call | KTVU FOX 2 https://t.co/k1ypBpY3Hj
The next update to results in Alameda County will happen on Friday, per the county website.
A great explainer of the vote tallying process can be read on The Berkeley Scanner.
There were a SUBSTANTIAL number of people who dropped off their ballots in person on November 5 at the Senior Center. They were waiting in line before staff told them they could just drop off in the bin located across the registration tables. If voters had know the lag time would be so slow for ballots, I’m sure many Nov 5 voters would have opted to vote in person rather than drop off a ballot in person day of.
Emeryville race is minuscule in the grand scheme of things but with TWO recalls in a GENERAL election cycle, it is completely inept and irresponsible of Tim to have fallen so short. When Alameda County BOS asked him at a meeting a few weeks ago if he was well staffed to handle the counts, he said yes.
You have a “slight” error in the story. Tim Dupuis’ compensation is NOT $500,000 million, it’s not even that close to $500K. Per your link in the story, his compensation is approximately $350K. Don’t get me wrong, that is still an outrageous amount for a county employee.
Correction to my comment. I looked at the link and then forgot all of what it said. His compensation is nearly $500,000. Still NOT $500,000 million.
Thank you! Yes, sloppy on my part and fixed. Total compensation = $493K (not $493M) 🤷🏻♂️
In this day and age, and after previous monumental errors. Tim Dupuis is obviously either inept, or corrupt. Maybe both. but if he thinks people are going to wait the up to 30 days, his days of counting votes are over.
This delay is absolutely ridiculous and the registrar is obviously inept, or simply corrupt.
Another vote for “inept or simply corrupt.” Nearly 3w since election day and they still haven’t completed the count. What a clown.