Dec. 13 -- Changes will be coming to the 2026 election cycle to ensure a smoother process and faster results.
San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Olivia Hale told the board of supervisors this week that an automated ballot duplication and automated signature verification systems will be in place for the June primary and November general elections.
Paper ballots are often counted on tabulation machines, which scan each submission to record a voter's selections. If a ballot is defective or damaged, the machine may not be able to read it.
Election officials will then copy a voter's selections from a defective or damaged ballot onto a new ballot that can be scanned. That process is called ballot duplication.
With an automated system, a ballot will be instantly duplicated when fed into a tabulation machine, ensuring a voter's selections will be counted.
For signature verification, elections officials must compare the signature on vote-by-mail ballot to the voter's registration record.
The new automated system allows the ROV to place the ballot envelope into a sorting machine, where it is photographed by cameras reading signatures and comparing them to those on voter's registration files.
The two systems now digitize manual processes, Hale said, which reduces errors and cuts back on staff work loads.
In addition, Hale said her staff will be simplifying the provisional and conditional voter registration processing by reducing the number of forms to be completed.
There are several forms poll workers must administer to residents seeking to register as provisional or conditional voters on election day, and Hale said many have errors or the wrong papers once completed.
Poll workers will now use the envelope the forms come in as a registration affidavit, which Hale said will ensure poll workers do not add or misplace parts of an application.
"We listen to folks who come to our board meetings to talk to us about the elections," Hale said. "Something that was brought up was concerns with CVR/provisional voter and not being able to get the correct ballot type at the precinct since we launched the 'no wrong location.' So our GIS team is working on technology that will allow voters that's not on the current roll to scan a QR code, type in their address and provide their voting precinct number to us for that given election so we can ensure we will be able to give m the correct ballot."
Other changes to upcoming elections will be the amount of time it takes to certify election results.
Currently, registrars have 30 days to submit their results to the California Secretary of State. However, under the recently approved AB16, registrars will be given the ability to certify results on the 23rd day after polls close.
There are 403,835 registered voters in the county, and 188,443 cast ballots during the Nov. 4 special election. Hale said she anticipates a "significant" increase in voter turnout in 2026.
Some 161,144 vote-by-mail ballots were cast for the last election. of which 24,047 of which were returned at the polls and 44,893 that were returned through an official county drop box.
Hale said 3,196 were placed in the drop box at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds, and 1,043 were placed in the box at the Young's IGA Payless in Lockeford.
Another 400 were placed in the box at Lomeli Gardens; 142 were placed in the box at Viaggio; and 111 were placed in the box at Clements Country Market.
Hale said staff is reviewing adding drop box locations in Lodi next year and re-evaluating the box at Viaggio.
There were 25 drop boxes throughout the county for the November election, and Supervisor Steve Ding suggested reducing the total to the state's requirement of 14.
Ding said the boxes that collected the least amount of ballots could be removed, and voters could use Post Office mail boxes or a polling location to send their ballots back to the registrar.
"All this extra stuff ... we have a lot of other priorities going on, and it's not going to get in the way of people voting," he said. "Most people voted by mail to begin with, and we made it complicated on them."