REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO
AND RECORD OF ACTION
April 7, 2020
FROM
BOB PAGE, Registrar of Voters, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title v
Certified Election Results for the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
1. Accept the Certified Election Results for the 2020 Presidential Primary Election held on March 3, 2020 that are on file with the Clerk of the Board and the Registrar of Voters.
2. Adopt Resolution declaring the results for the offices under the jurisdiction of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors that appeared on the ballot in the 2020 Presidential Primary Election, and declaring those candidates as elected or nominated who received the highest number of votes, or plurality, if applicable, for each office.
3. Adopt Resolution declaring qualified nominees elected to San Bernardino Central Committees, where there were insufficient qualified nominees to appear on the 2020 Presidential Primary Election ballot.
(Presenter: Bob Page, Registrar of Voters, 387-2100)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Pursue County Goals and Objectives by Working with Other Agencies.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this item will not result in the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). Appropriation for the minimal staffing required to present the Certified Election Results was included in the Registrar of Voters 2019-20 budget.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Registrar of Voters (ROV) conducted the 2020 Presidential Primary Election held on March 3, 2020, in compliance with the California Elections and Government Codes, and the County Code. Ballots were cast by 391,935 eligible voters in the election, which equated to a 38.51 percent turnout of all registered voters in the election.
In addition to members of the six qualified political parties and some voters with no party preference casting ballots for their preferred candidates for U.S. President, voters in this election also expressed their choices for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, California Senate and Assembly, Superior Court Judges, Chaffey Community College District Board, Baker Valley Unified School District Board, County Board of Supervisors, Loma Linda City Council and San Bernardino City Council. The election also included a State bond initiative; bond measures for five school districts; tax measures for two cities, a hospital district, and a fire authority; and a land use measure for a city. Finally, members of two political parties elected candidates to their party central committees.
ROV completed the canvass on April 1, 2020 - 29 days following Election Day. Some of the canvass activities included:
• Processing more than 132,000 ballots after Election Day, including: damaged ballots; all mail ballots without a signature on the envelope or having a signature that did not initially appear to match the signature on file with the voter’s registration documents; all mail ballots received on Election Day; all mail ballots postmarked by election day and received within three days; all provisional ballots; and all ballots cast by voters who conditionally registered to vote after the February 18, 2020, registration deadline.
• Notifying 4,954 voters that they either did not sign their return envelope or that their signature did not match the one on file with their voter registration documents and providing them an opportunity to correct their issue by March 30, 2020.
• Counting all the above-mentioned ballots cast by voters determined to be eligible.
• Completing required audits of the tallying of ballots, including a hand count of a random sample of 1 percent of the paper ballots counted by ballot scanners.
Recommendation No. 1: Accepts the Certified Election Results for the Presidential Primary Election held on March 3, 2020.
Upon completion of the canvass and as authorized by County Code section 12.2006, ROV certified the election results. In accordance with Elections Code sections 15372 and 15375, on April 2, 2020, ROV also provided the Certified Election Results to the Secretary of State, distributed it to the governing bodies of every local jurisdiction that participated in the election, and posted it on ROV’s website. The presentation to the Board of Supervisors of the Certified Election Results is informational.
The Certified Election Results is comprised of a Certified Statement of Election Results; a Summary Results Report (attached), which lists the total number of votes cast for each candidate; and a Statement of Vote Report, which lists the total number of votes cast in each precinct for each candidate. These reports are available and on file with the Clerk of the Board and the office of the ROV.
Recommendation No. 2: Adopts a Resolution declaring the results for the offices of Board of Supervisors, Districts 1, 3, and 5; Judge of the Superior Court, Offices 1 and 16; and Members of the Democratic and Republican Party County Central Committees. California Elections Code section 15400 provides that the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, as a governing body, shall declare elected or nominated those candidates receiving the highest number of votes, or plurality if applicable, for each office under its jurisdiction. California Elections Code section 8140 et seq. provides that candidates for nonpartisan offices who receive more than 50 percent of the vote (majority) shall be declared elected to that office.
For the office of Board of Supervisors, District 1, the Resolution declares candidate Paul Cook elected, as he received 64.66 percent of the vote. For the office of Board of Supervisors, District 3, the Resolution declares candidate Dawn Rowe elected, as she received 54.96 percent of the vote. For the office of Board of Supervisors, District 5, no candidate received a majority of the votes cast. As such the two candidates receiving the most votes in that contest - Joe Baca Jr and Jesse Armendarez - will be on the ballot in the 2020 Presidential General Election to be held on November 3, 2020.
For the office of Judge of the Superior Court, Office 1, the Resolution declares candidate Joel S. Agron elected, as he received 55.34 percent of the vote. For Judge of the Superior Court, Office 16, the Resolution declares candidate Stanford Reichert elected, as he received 53.72 percent of the vote.
Recommendation No. 3: Adopts a Resolution declaring qualified nominees elected to San Bernardino County Central Committees where there were an equal or fewer number of candidates for each contest (unopposed). California Elections Codes section 7228 and section 7423 state that if 73 days before the election, ROV finds the number of candidates nominated for election to Democratic or Republican Party County Central Committees does not exceed the number of candidates to be elected, the Board of Supervisors shall declare the nominated candidates elected.
PROCUREMENT
Not Applicable.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Penny Alexander-Kelley, Chief Assistant County Counsel, 387-4270) on March 9, 2020; Finance (Elias Duenas, Finance Analyst, 387-4052) on March 15, 2020; and County Finance and Administration (Robert Saldana, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on March 17, 2020.