Local elections offices still have tens of thousands of ballots left to count

San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties released their Unprocessed Ballots Reports for the Nov. 5 election on Thursday - a report required by the Secretary of State's Office.

In San Luis Obispo County, the Clerk-Recorder's Office reported that 82,548 ballots have been processed so far, and they have an estimated 68,992 still to go.

SLO County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano also reported on Thursday that there were an "unprecedented number" of provisional ballots cast during this election, "many by Cal Poly students voting for the first time or voting for the first time in SLO County."

Cano said that elections staff will be dedicating much of their time over the next few weeks to confirming these voters' registration and eligibility.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, county elections officials have 30 days to verify voter signatures, count votes, conduct a post-election audit, and report results to the Secretary of State. The deadline for county elections officials to report their final results to the Secretary of State is December 5.

San Luis Obispo County expects to update its election results by 5 p.m. on Friday, and Cano said she expects to update results at least once a week until every eligible ballot is counted.

In Santa Barbara County, the Clerk-Recorder has processed 135,992 ballots so far and has an estimated 50,620 unprocessed ballots still to be counted.