Voter participation in presidential election highest in Placer County history

Despite voting looking very different this year amid COVID-19 safety precautions and election delivery changes, Placer County voters showed up at a historic level last month. After officially certifying their votes, the Placer County Elections Office officially reported that 239,315 ballots were cast out of 271,112 registered voters, an 88.27 percent turnout. "It is an incredible turnout," said Ryan Ronco, Placer County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters. "It is really a testament to the voters – they were given a lot of new stuff to deal with this election." Placer County turnout wasn't just high locally, it had the fourth-highest voter turnout in the state and the second-highest turnout in counties with more than 200,000 residents. Ronco said he was especially surprised by the turnout since many new voters were registered through DMV renewals, part of a new California law that began in April 2018. The new law makes people opt out if they do not want to be registered, increasing the number of registered voters all over the state. This election was also noteworthy for the number of hand-counted ballots that were processed in the county. To ensure the technology tabulating the votes is accurate, officials from the Elections Office work on a randomly selected sample of precincts for a recount. Placer County Elections Office staff counted 64,142 ballots, more than 25 percent, of the ballots cast by hand. In a typical election, 10 percent of ballots is a high number for the hand count. "It is virtually unheard of to hand-count that much," said Philip Chantri, Placer County Elections manager. "And we came out with everything matching exactly." Ronco and Chantri highlighted the flexibility of Placer County voters who faced major changes in the process of casting their ballots – from polling places to voter service centers and everyone being sent a mail-in ballot. "I think we learned a lot of different things," Ronco said. "What we learned is there is a need for us to be able to always meet people where they are at." Ronco stressed the importance of explaining to people why certain changes were necessary, as a mandate from the state, to help ease people's resistance. "We learned a lot about what we could pull off in Placer County," Ronco said, highlighting they had to change every step of the process from delivering supplies, the way equipment was used and more, all while meeting COVID-19 guidelines. Chantri and Ronco said Elections Office staff worked day and night to make this election a reality, and every department in Placer County did its part to pitch in. "The logistics of this were ginormous," Chantri said. "Basically every county agency stepped up to help us get it done." Interesting Placer County voting statistics · Approximately 12,103 voters (5 percent) voted in person at a service center. This does not include people who dropped off mail-in ballots at service centers. · A majority of the ballots (158,000) were dropped off, either at a drop box or voter service center. Only 77,000 voters returned their ballots using the postal service. · Auburn's second open city council seat was won by Rachel Radell-Harris by only 60 votes, or .46 percent, just ahead of candidate Dan Grumley. Radell-Harris received the second-most votes, behind Alice Dowdin Calvillo, also by 60 votes, or .46 percent. · Colfax City Council incumbent Kim A. Douglass fell to David Ackerman by 17 votes, or 1.36 percent. It was the closest race in Placer County and has a history of being a tight race, Ronco said. · Measure S, Auburn's sales tax increase, failed to get the majority of votes. The no vote took that race by 790, or 9.62 percent. The only other measure to face defeat in the county was Measure G, which would amend the Placer County charter to allow the county executive officer the authority to appoint, suspend and remove appointed department heads. · Placer County voters voted down 11 of the 12 state propositions, only supporting Proposition 22, the app-based drivers-as-contractors proposition, with 69.33 percent of the vote. While the state results are not finalized, statewide election results are leaning toward passing Propositions 14, 17, 19, 22 and 24. · In the race for President of the United States, Auburn cast 4,523 votes for President-elect Joe Biden (51.59 percent) and 4,001 votes for President Donald Trump (45.64 percent). In Placer County, Trump received 122,488 votes (52.1 percent), while Biden received 106,869 (45.46 percent).