Registrar: May Take Weeks to Count All Votes

Staffers at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office were processing, but not actually counting, around 475,000 provisional and mail-in general election ballots Wednesday, according to Registrar Deborah Seiler.

The large amount of ballots is a looming issue, since several races from Tuesday's election remain too close to call.

Port Commissioner Scott Peters leads Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, by 685 votes in his attempt to wrestle away the 52nd Congressional District seat; and Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Dave Roberts holds a 1,896-vote edge over Bilbray's chief of staff, Steve Danon, in their race to succeed retiring county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

Several other election races are also still subject to change, including:

-- Mike Hansen leads Sharon Jenkins by 35 votes for the second of two spots on the San Marcos City Council;

-- Amanda Young Rigby leads Cliff Kaiser by 51 votes for the second of two seats on the Vista City Council; and

-- Nancy Ann Hensch leads Rose Marie Dishman by 421 votes for the third of three seats on the Palomar College governing board.

Seiler told City News Service that counting will resume Thursday and could take a few weeks. Updated vote totals will be posted online at sdvote.com by 5 p.m. each work day, she said.

It could be late next week before the large number of uncounted ballots is whittled well down, she said.

She said she heard no reports of serious irregularities on Tuesday.

"I think things went rather smoothly," Seiler said.

-City News Service