Oakdale Irrigation District board member Linda Santos is the focus of a recall election that will be staged next week, with ‘election day’ on Tuesday, April 25.
The local polling place that day will be at Life Community Church, 105 E. G St., Oakdale. Santos and recall proponent Deanne Dalrymple are featured in a special ‘Q&A’ feature on Page A5 of this week’s issue.
The recall election is specifically for voters in the Division 4 District represented on the OID board by Santos. Residents in that district will have the chance to vote on Tuesday if they have not done a mail-in ballot already. OID Division 4 has a total of 1,831 registered voters, of which 1,247 are permanent vote by mail voters and 18 are all-mail precinct voters.
Santos was elected in November of 2015 for a term that runs through 2019.
Stanislaus County Clerk Recorder and Registrar of Voters Lee Lundrigan said while there will be an unofficial Election Night tally of the votes, it will be some time – at least a week – before an official count is reached.
New California laws extend the time period vote by mail ballots must be accepted beyond Election Day and will increase the number of ballots to be processed, she explained. Elections Code 3020 (“Postmark Plus 3” effective Jan. 1, 2015) extends the dates VBM ballots are timely received from 8 p.m. on Election Day for three additional days.
Elections Code 3019 went into effect Jan. 1, 2016 and now requires each Registrar of Voters office to allow eight days after an election for voters who have not signed their vote by mail envelopes to come into the office to sign them or submit an Unsigned Ballot Envelope Statement. The election cannot be certified until this time limit is met. Lundrigan said her office will contact each of these voters and advise them they have eight days, until Wednesday, May 3, 2017, to sign their envelopes.
Election Day ballot counts will be posted on the county website, www.stanvote.com following the close of polls at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25.
“The canvass will continue until complete,” said Lundrigan.
California law requires certification for this election or before May 25, 2017.
