Even with a federal lawsuit, a letter from the United States Department of Justice and a sour mood in the country, everything seems to be running smoothly for the upcoming Nov. 3 election in Mariposa County.
“Don’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble,” said Courtney Morrow, the Mariposa County Clerk and head of elections, referring to some sage advice from her late father years ago.
Last week, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the state of California, claiming some 20,000 people in the state are registered to vote even though they are not American citizens.
To take it further, Morrow said she received a letter from the DOJ listing two local voters, questioning their citizenship. As of Monday, Morrow said she had not looked into that aspect and wouldn’t unless she receives direction from a court.
“I am not doing anything until I get direction,” said Morrow on Monday of this week.
The federal government offered no proof of how they know that to be the case and the matter is now pending before a federal judge.
The suit requests that California officials segregate the ballots of those people until their citizenship can be determined. It also threatened arrest of election officials who don’t comply.
“There is no court order,” said Morrow, saying local officials cannot do anything until an official ruling. “The government has not established they are not citizens.”
In fact, she said it would be difficult to even know if someone who is not a citizen is registered since there are so many avenues to register to vote.
In Nevada, the federal government tried a similar move, saying some 18,000 people were illegally registered. That was the first time they made the claim. The second time, it had suddenly been whittled down to 185.
When Nevada officials did their due diligence and checked each name, it turned out none — zero — were registered illegally.
This comes at a time when the Trump administration continues to claim widespread voter fraud, with some people fearing the federal government might try to disrupt next week’s election.
“Filing a lawsuit does not make it so,” said Morrow.
Normal election cycle
For Morrow, she just follows her dad’s advice and is focusing on conducting a fair election — something she prides herself on and has since she’s been in the election business.
As of last week, about 11 or 12 percent of Mariposa County’s 11,758 registered voters had already cast ballots.
Morrow called that number “normal,” and said this week is generally when they begin coming in at a faster pace. She also noted some people wait until election day.
But for the most part, the vast majority of voters in Mariposa County cast votes prior to election day.
Mariposa County — and all of California — utilizes the mail-in ballot system. In that system, every registered voter receives a ballot in the mail. Those ballots went out Oct. 5.
Mariposa County has a contract with a company which mails the ballots. Election officials transmit the mailing information. The company then packages the ballots and envelopes and sends them out via the U.S. Mail. In this case, they came from Anaheim.
Morrow said there were “a fair amount of calls” from people who complained about it taking a while to get their ballots, but it appears most received them within three to five days of the ballots being mailed.
Once ballots are in the hands of voters, they have a several options. One is to return them via the U.S. Mail and the other is to put them in drop boxes located throughout the county.
People can also vote at designated vote centers in various location, but Morrow said traffic in those centers is generally light.
Morrow said election officials will begin processing the ballots on Oct. 31.
“That’s the point of no return,” she said, referring to the federal lawsuit.
On that Saturday, which this year is also Halloween, she said workers open, separate and organize the ballots. The following day, the crews begin the process of running the ballots through the machines.
It’s that separation of ballots that is key, she said, because once that happens, “there is no way to identify the ballots.”
Morrow stressed it is simply to get the ballots in the system and ready for when they will be officially tabulated. That happens just after the polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
She said it’s likely those results will be available within 10 to 15 minutes after the polls close. She also said that “most” of the ballots will be counted during that process, meaning what’s left is what was cast on election day, which is generally a small percentage of the overall voting.
One change
One thing that did change this year is legislation approved in Sacramento which requires counties to collect the ballots from the boxes every 96 hours.
For small counties, like this one, that means scheduling pickups twice a week from the ballot boxes. Morrow said that did impact the scheduling that was already in place.
In Mariposa County, officials from the Mariposa County Public Works department as well as a few people hired as extra help collect the ballots each week, which is now twice a week. There is a rigorous process involved, said Morrow, including signatures and more.
“It created more work,” said Morrow of the legislation, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, likely in response to the threats which have been issued from the federal government.
It’s no secret that Newsom and President Trump have a hostile relationship and that Trump has targeted California on many matters, from elections to water.
She did have high praise for public works officials, who she said adjusted schedules to meet the new requirements.
Morrow also has nothing but praise for her staff, who, along with those in public works, she called “the absolute backbone of election month. It is a month, not a day.”
Safe and secure
In spite of some social media chatter and the people who always think there is some kind of conspiracy involved in elections, Morrow said that just isn’t the case.
For instance, everyone in the elections office is trained by a former FBI agent in recognizing handwriting.
The reason is pretty obvious as each ballot has to be signed by the voter and is then verified by election workers.
“All signatures are looked at,” she said. “We do everything we can to ensure the votes are secure.”
Another example, said Morrow, is how she works with officials in other counties, including Merced and Tuolumne. In one case, there was an ink cartridge failure on a machine and an election official from Tuolumne County met a Mariposa County election official in Coulterville to provide the needed cartridge.
In fact, Morrow said she feels elections officials across California are just trying to do their jobs and provide accurate, fair elections for the public. She’s met many of them and said they are all “just trying to do their jobs, raise their families and live a normal life.”
Another misconception Morrow sees is what it takes to get a replacement ballot.
Let’s say coffee was spilled on your mailed ballot, or you never received it or even the proverbial scenario where the dog got a hold of it, Morrow said getting a replacement is easy.
People just have to come to the election office and they immediately get a new ballot.
But what about the other ballot?
“The old one is voided immediately,” she said, noting even if it somehow made it into a ballot box, when it is counted the machine “would immediately” spit it out so election officials would know it had been replaced.
Morrow said one thing she stresses to all local residents is to inquire with her office if there are questions.
“I am always available to answer any questions,” she said.
The ballot
This year’s ballot in Mariposa County is 21 inches long, much of it because of the 14 ballot measures.
As far as local races, the most significant in the county is in Supervisor District 1, where Lisa Edelheit and Stan Bissmeyer are vying for the seat.
There are no other local races. That includes for a new judge, the hospital board and other area boards. In all cases, the races are unopposed and don’t appear on the ballot.
Regionally, maybe the biggest race of interest is for Senate District 4, where incumbent Marie Alvarado Gil was ousted in the primary election. Gil was elected four years ago as a Democrat. However, she changed her party affiliation to Republican two years ago.
In this year’s race, Democrat Jaron Brandon and Republican Alexandra Duarte (R) are running for the position. The district covers 13 counties across the Sierra, including all of Mariposa County.
Republican David Tangipa of Fresno is running unopposed for California Assembly District 8, which includes Mariposa County.
On the federal level, incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock is facing Michael Masuda for the 5th Congressional District seat. McClintock has held that office since 2009, even though it was District 4 when he first won.
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