2020 Monterey County Election Results Certified

Salinas, CA – on Tuesday night, November 24 Monterey County Registrar of Voters, Claudio Valenzuela certified the results for the November 3, 2020 General Election. The official results, available at https://www.montereycountyelections.us/latest-election-results/, show a voter turnout of 80.21% and the highest voter registration level in the history of Monterey County, with 206,917 registered voters. Monterey County Elections has proactively been preparing for an all vote by mail election even before COVID-19. The preparation that went into Election Day started years ago when the department moved to their new facility which allows multiple election activities to run simultaneously. Additionally, acquiring a vote by mail processing system and updating their vote by mail practices, allowed the elections department to process large quantities of ballots in a shorter amount of time without compromising the security and integrity of the vote. Even as COVID-19 added a layer of complexity to the election, each staff member performed to the highest of standards and spent long hours, including several days past midnight, to ensure the ballot packages were sent to Monterey County Voters ahead of the deadline and to guarantee the safety and well-being of poll workers, staff and voters. “I am very proud that voters in Monterey County heard the message to vote by mail and vote early in order to avoid crowding the polling places on Election Day. This fact is reflected in the turnout of 74.71% vote by mail compared to only 5.51% of voters voting at the polls” stated Claudio Valenzuela, Monterey County Registrar of Voters. “We are very thankful for all the poll workers, many of them volunteering to work in elections for the first time, our county employees from the majority of the departments and especially to the Monterey County Free Libraries, and Salinas and Carmel City Libraries for partnering with us to be ballot return points. It was good preparedness, planning and truly a team effort that made it possible to conduct a successful election in the middle of a global pandemic. Last but not least, we are incredibly appreciative of our partnership with the United States Postal Service, they did a truly remarkable job with on-time delivery”, added Registrar Valenzuela.