Napa County invites the public to watch the November election count
Observation begins Sept. 28 with logic and accuracy testing, and the registrar says watchers help protect the integrity of the vote.
NAPA: Napa County will open its November election operations to public observation starting Monday, Sept. 28, beginning with the logic and accuracy testing of the voting equipment.
The testing starts at 10 a.m. at the Election Division, 1125 Third St. in Napa, according to the county's announcement. Members of the public may observe every stage of the process, from equipment checks through the final manual tally.
Logic and accuracy testing is the election's public shakedown cruise. Before any ballot is counted, officials run marked test ballots through the tabulation equipment to confirm the machines read every vote exactly as marked. Watching the test is the simplest way for a resident to see, firsthand, that the counting equipment does what it is supposed to do.
Processing of vote-by-mail ballots begins Oct. 22 at 8:30 a.m., and the official count begins Oct. 24 at 9 a.m. Results from mail ballots processed before Election Day are expected to be released shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
The observation calendar extends well past Election Day. The one percent manual tally, in which a random sample of precincts is counted by hand to verify the machine count, begins Nov. 23. The hand count serves as an independent check on the tabulators, and California law allows counties up to 30 days after the election to certify results.
County election officials encourage anyone curious about how ballots move from mailbox to final count to attend. Observation is open to all, and no appointment is required to watch the logic and accuracy test that opens the season.
Those first results on election night come from the mail ballots processed in the days before Nov. 3, which is why observation of the October processing sessions matters. The ballots reported shortly after 8 p.m. will have been handled in public view weeks earlier, one envelope at a time.
Taken together, the calendar runs for more than two months: from the first equipment test on Sept. 28 through the manual tally in late November and certification within 30 days of Election Day. At each step, the county's position is that the process belongs in public. Residents who take up the invitation will see the same ballots, the same machines and the same counts the officials see, in the same room.
For first-time observers, the logic and accuracy test is the best starting point. It is short, it is visual, and it answers the most basic question about any election: does the equipment count the votes correctly.
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