Placer County is one of the only counties in the Sacramento region allowing mail-in ballots to be counted at vote centers through its new “sign, scan and go” process.
Typically, mail-in ballots are sent to a county’s elections office to be counted. In Placer County, 90% of voting is done through mail-in ballots that are often dropped off close to Election Day —something Ryan Ronco, the county's registrar of voters, said is a large reason for creating this process.
That’s on par with data from the California Secretary of State, which found that roughly 90% of state voters voted through mail-in ballots in the 2022 primary election — that’s up from 60% in 2016.
“If you’re dropping off your vote by mail ballot really close to Election Day, then there’s just so many ballots ahead of you that your ballot may not be counted on or before Election Day,” he said. “So all of those ballots that we can’t count by 8 p.m. on Election Day get counted after the election.”
The problem with this, Ronco said, is that some people get worried by the delay because they think “there may be shenanigans happening” during the ballot counting process. That’s where the new “sign, scan and go” program comes into play.
“We’re encouraging our voters who are bringing a vote-by-mail ballot with them to drop [it] off at a vote center to just spend an extra minute or two, check-in at that front counter where the people have the rosters,” he said. “If you haven’t voted, you can just open up that envelope and put the ballot right into the scanner. You get the satisfaction of seeing your ballot counted in front of you at the vote center, and your ballot is going to be part of that 8 p.m. election night final tally.”
Additionally, Ronco said it will reduce the number of ballots his elections office needs to count after the election.
“It’s a win, win, win, really,” he added.
Volunteers catalog ballots Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, at the Placer County Elections Office at 3715 Atherton Rd. in Rocklin.In early 2023, California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 626, which allows counties to scan and count vote-by-mail ballots at vote centers.
Prior to that, voters could only drop off their mail-in ballots for later processing at an elections office, or they had to surrender their mail-in ballot at a vote center and be issued a poll ballot instead.
Sacramento and Yolo counties, however, are both considered “central count counties,” meaning they only scan and count mail-in ballots at their main elections offices.
Several vote centers in Placer County opened last week and are available through Election Day, and another 10 will open Nov. 2. Locations can be found by visiting Placer County Elections Office’s website.
The Secretary of State’s office maintains this list of California voting locations. All voting locations will be open on election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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