The Elections Office released an update on Tuesday afternoon that added over 12,000 ballots to the total count. With 34,480 ballots counted and 30,499 remaining to be processed, we’re now past the halfway mark.
Undervotes in local races a standout in this cycle
A trend that persists throughout the updates is the high number of undervotes, meaning voters either did not express their preference for either candidate in a two-person race or only voted for one candidate when they had the option to cast their vote for two or more.
For example, in the Grass Valley City Council race, voters could pick up to three candidates. So far 3,755 ballots have been counted, with 3 possible votes per ballot that would amount to 11,265 votes. Only 6,706 votes were cast, leaving 4,547 undervotes and 4 ballots with overvotes (voted for more than 3.)
The full update is posted on our Nevada County election result page. We should note that some contests in the Tahoe/Truckee area and the NID Division 3 have districts that overlap both Nevada and Placer County. Placer County results are here.
The next update from Nevada County is expected on Friday afternoon.