Before any ballots may be counted, the vote counting system is subject to Logic and Accuracy Testing, witnessed by an Official Observer Panel. These same tests are run after the count is finished. Official Observers are solicited from the County Grand Jury , the League of Women Voters, media and the political parties, city clerks and civic organizations.

Vote by mail ballots received prior to Election Day are fed through readers and totals are stored until the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. At that time, the first bulletin is created and released ). (approximately 8:15 to 8:30 p.m. ). No additional vote by mail ballots are counted on election night. 

Polling place ballots are counted at the Registrar of Voters on election night.  Counting will continue until all polling place ballots are counted.

Mail Ballots - Pursuant to Election Code 3005, Mail Ballot Precincts are for remote areas, or areas that have jurisdictional boundaries requiring a unique ballot and that have less than 250 voters.  Voters who are assigned to mail ballot precincts receive a ballot in the mail 29 days before the election.  Mail ballots are processed in the same manner as Vote by Mail (absentee) ballots.

Precincts with zero voters will be added to the precincts counted total at the end of ballot counting; however, vote totals will not change.

The following ballots are not included in the election night totals. Once eligibility is determined, these ballots are added to the election results. The ballot types added during Official Canvass include:

Vote by Mail Ballots returned on Election Day to our office and/or dropped off at polling locations. These ballots do not arrive in sufficient time to be individually signature-verified, opened and prepared for tabulation on election night.

Damaged Ballots or those ballots marked in such as way that they are unable to be processed through the election tally system and, therefore, must be manually duplicated prior to tabulation.

Provisional Ballots and Fail-Safe Ballots issued at the various polling places on election day must be individually researched to determine their eligibility. Provisional ballots are issued at polling locations when a person's voter registration cannot immediately be verified.

During the canvass period each provisional ballot is researched to determine the voter’s eligibility and verify the signature. In a major election there may be as many as 40,000 ballots involved. After the determination is made and if the voter is qualified to vote, their ballots are added to the overall total for the election.

Write-In Votes must be individually reviewed to determine if the write-in vote is for a qualified or unqualified write-in candidate (a "qualified" candidate is one that has met the legal requirements to run for office and has filed a statement of write-in candidacy with the appropriate elections office). Write-in ballots must also be checked to verify whether or not the voter also voted for a candidate listed on the ballot for the same office.