Contact: Mark Church, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Alternate: Jim Irizarry, Asst. Chief Elections Officer & Asst. Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
(Redwood City, CA) The San Mateo County Registration & Elections Division continues to process ballots for the March 5, 2024 Presidential Primary Election. As of 4 p.m. on March 20, San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Mark Church released the Semi-Official Results showing a total of 173,852 ballots counted out of 435,482 registered voters for a voter turnout of 39.92%. The Semi-Official Elections Results are posted on the Elections website at this link.
The contest for a run-off spot on the November ballot against Sam Liccardo in the 16th Congressional District race has come down to a three-vote difference districtwide between Evan Low receiving 30,216 votes and Joe Simitian receiving 30,213 as of 7:06 p.m. on March 20, 2024. The 16th Congressional District encompasses both San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties and the Districtwide Results may be found at this link on the Secretary of State’s website.
As of today, in San Mateo County, of all ballots received, 561 are conditional or provisional ballots, of which four ballots remain to be processed.
A total of 2,998 ballots are “challenged”, of which 670 remain curable. A ballot is challenged when a Vote by Mail ballot does not meet certain requirements as required by law.
Vote by Mail ballots can be challenged for the following reasons:
- No signature. The Voter did not sign the back of the ballot return envelope.
- Signature does not match. The Voter’s signature on the back of their ballot return envelope does not match the signature in their voter file.
- ID required. The Voter did not provide their Driver’s License number or the last 4 digits of their Social Security number when registering to vote. In order to have their vote counted, they will need to provide one of the forms of identification listed on the California Secretary of State’s website here.
- Arrived too late. Vote by Mail Ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received by county elections officials no later than seven days (March 12, 2024) must be processed. However, ballots received after March 12, 2024 will be rejected. San Mateo County ballots received in other counties, for any reason, within the seven-day period, will be processed by our office when received prior to certification of the election results.
In accordance with California law, ballots challenged for the first three reasons above can be “cured” until 5:00 p.m. on April 2, 2024, giving the voter an opportunity to provide a valid signature or ID. Ballots that arrived too late cannot be cured and will not be counted.
The San Mateo County Registration & Elections Division sends Cure Letters daily as ballots are processed and challenged.
Semi-official reports of results are released daily, Monday-Friday at 4:30 p.m.