Sacramento County has to print, distribute and count more than 450 different ballots for today’s election. Yolo County has more than 150. That’s because in every jurisdiction – like a city council or county supervisor’s district – officials have to create ballots for each political party. So how do officials make sure they get all their ducks – er, ballots – in a row? Here’s Sacramento County’s Brad Buyse:
Buyse: “We proof, we proof and of course we proof again. So many times, we do double-and triple-proofs on everything that goes out of our office.”
Yolo County’s Freddie Oakley says her office tries to make things as clear and organized for poll workers as possible.
Oakley: “We use color-coded folders with instructions printed out large and pasted to the front of the folder that say things like, ‘This is your folder for Democrats. When a Democrat walks in, consult this checklist.’”
And counting all those different ballots will take a lot longer than usual. Oakley says she’s expecting a 4am bedtime instead of 2am.