Excerpt:

Every election, the prickly Lake County registrar follows California’s litany of voting laws and certifies thousands of ballots by the time she is required to. And every year, people still complain.

“The state gave us a deadline; we meet the deadline,” an exasperated Valadez said from her small office in Lakeport as several staffers sat at computers verifying signatures more than two weeks after election day, when they had tallied fewer than half of the votes. “I just don’t understand— why do we need to rush?” 

In a state known for its slow processing of election results, Lake County, with only about 38,000 voters, is often the slowest of all.

Ballots ready for processing at the Lake County registrar’s office in Lakeport.

For years, the rural Northern California county — known for local disputes over marijuana cultivationand several brutal wildfires — has been among the state’s last to announce votes after elections, often frustrating candidates and befuddling political pundits.

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Jim Emenegger processes ballots at the Lake County Registrar of Voters office.

The Lake County registrar’s office has five full time-employees, and one is on leave. A few retirees have been added as temporary help. The county — population: 67,000 — does not have a machine to verify signatures, instead verifying them manually. 

Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said places like Lake County don’t get the same resources as bigger tourism destinations with urban centers and higher property taxes. The state does not help counties pay for elections staff or voting equipment even as it issues more mandates, she said, making local officials’ jobs harder and uneven, depending on where they live.

“I get really frustrated when I hear lawmakers complaining about how long it takes to count, because they could actually do something about it,” Alexander said. “If elections were not a chronically underfunded government service, we could have faster results.” 

Valadez also pointed to voting preferences as a potential reason for the timing of the county’s results. Unlike a growing number of counties, Lake County does not offer voting centers, a hybrid model that allows voters to drop off ballots several days before the election.

Voters here prefer to vote in person at their neighborhood polling precincts, and some are still getting used to receiving a ballot in the mail, Valadez said. 

But even if Lake County got a boost in funding, and more voters sent their ballots in by mail early, it’s unclear whether elections officials would change much of their decades-old strategy. (Full Story)_