Elections office racing the clock to certify November election

Merced County Elections Office employees worked feverishly to finalize results Monday in order to certify the results of the Nov. 8 election Tuesday.

With several races separated by only a handful of votes, candidates and voters have waited for final results to determine the winners. Preliminary results showed several incumbents at risk of losing their seats.

For instance, Dominic Falasco had only a six-vote lead to hold on to his seat on the Los Banos Unified School District board. Phil Schiber, a trustee on the Merced Union High School District governing board, led his challenger by only three votes.

Barbara Levey, Merced County’s registrar of voters, said employees have been working long hours and on weekends to tally ballots.

Employees worked to process the last of 6,500 provisional ballots Monday for formal certification Tuesday before sending the results along to the Board of Supervisors. State law requires the county to certify the presidential election results by Tuesday.

Officials with the city of Merced initially planned to administer the oath of office to the newly elected mayor and City Council members Monday night. When it became clear the results wouldn’t be certified, however, the ceremony was moved to the next meeting, on Dec. 19.

Merced City School District also issued a message on its website indicating the regularly scheduled school board meeting had been postponed to Dec. 13 due to a lack of quorum because the election results had not been certified.

Voter turnout from Nov. 8 is expected to be at a record high for Merced County. Preliminary results show about 65,634, or 66 percent of registered voters, participated in the election. That number is expected to increase in the final results.

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Elections office racing the clock to certify November election."