Thousands of uncounted ballots are holding up county races. We still know little about them.

At this point, 10 days after Election Day, most races in Santa Cruz County have been called. We know Monica Martinez will be the next District 5 county supervisor, we know the future makeup of the Scotts Valley and Capitola city councils, and the likely outcome of Watsonville’s. 

Yet, two of the most watched races this year remain too close to call, even at this late juncture, thanks to thousands of outstanding ballots that the public and county clerk still know little about. 

Measure Z, the city of Santa Cruz proposal to levy a 2-cents-per-fluid-ounce distribution tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, leads by 1,051 votes as of Friday’s tally. In the race for District 2 county supervisor, Kim De Serpa, the social worker and Pajaro Valley school district trustee, leads Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown by 749 votes. Measure Z and De Serpa have consistently, though meagerly, widened their margins with each new tranche of tallied ballots. 

Yet, both leads will hold an element of uncertainty until the roughly 3,700 outstanding same-day registration ballots come more clearly into focus. Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber told Lookout none of these ballots have been added to the tally; in terms of precincts and to which races these ballots apply, she and her office still know little. 

As described in their name, same-day registration ballots are those cast by a person who registers to vote at a polling place just before filling out their ballot. The voter completes a registration form and in return receives the specific ballot for where they live; but all the work to confirm this voter’s information does not begin until the ballot/registration is brought to the clerk’s office. 

In Webber’s office of roughly 30 people, these ballots are last in priority behind early voting, Election Day votes by already registered voters, and vote-by-mail ballots. Election workers have to enter each voter’s registration information into a system by hand. Once entered, Webber said it takes, on average, 24 hours to clear a registration. It is unclear how many same-day ballots her team has registered or where in the county they came from. She said she saw about “15 to 20 bundles” before leaving the office Friday, and each bundle holds “either 25 or 50 ballots.”

Election Central: Read all of Lookout’s Election 2024 coverage here

Thanks to the state’s ubiquitous vote-by-mail system, tallying ballots takes longer now than when most voters voted in person. However, election clerks do have the power to use the resources in their office how they see fit. Webber said her philosophy is to focus on moving the entire and multivaried election certification process forward toward the Dec. 3 certification deadline, instead of focusing resources on giving the public as much certainty as possible on specific close races. 

The truth is, she said, she could assign more of her team to processing, counting and sorting same-day registration ballots, but it would take away from other important parts of the certification, such as tallying write-ins, verifying voter participation data and updating the county’s voter roster. 

“I understand it’s difficult, when races are close, to have to sit there and wait; I realize it’s hard, and I don’t want to try and make it hard,” Webber said. “But we’re not focused on one contest being more important than another. To us, the entire ballot is important, and every activity we’re doing is important to the process.” 

Webber said she plans to sort through the 3,700 same-day registration ballots this weekend; however, since it will be a manual sorting, she said it’s only realistic for her to sort the ballots by supervisorial district. This is a resource call Webber is making as the head of the county’s election process: sorting these ballots manually down to the city precinct level would take too much time and effort and is ultimately not the top priority for her office, yet. 

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