San Luis Obispo County election’s office is slowest in the state

Sixteen days after polls closed on the June 2 statewide primary, San Luis Obispo County's elections office held the distinction no local official wants: the most unfinished ballots of any county in California.

As of June 18, CalCoastNews reported that SLO County had 4,654 of its 96,488 ballots cast still uncounted — the largest outstanding pile in the state. Statewide, only 13,636 ballots remained to be tallied across all 58 counties at that moment, meaning SLO County alone accounted for more than a third of California's remaining uncounted votes. The county ranking second-slowest, Riverside — which cast more than five times as many ballots — had just 2,200 outstanding.

What the Numbers Mean

To put the disparity in context: Riverside County had roughly 546,592 ballots cast and still managed to finish ahead of SLO's count, according to CalCoastNews's reading of the California Secretary of State's unprocessed ballots tracker. Of California's 58 counties, only 15 had not yet finished counting entirely — and SLO sat at the bottom of that list.

This is not a new pattern. CalCoastNews noted that at the end of the 2022 ballot count, SLO County was the second-slowest in the state to finish counting.

Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano has previously described the drawn-out canvass as "a testament to the meticulous and essential work happening behind the scenes," according to CalCoastNews. Her office did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.

A Small Office, A Complex Process

The reasons behind the lag are partly structural. In November 2025, Cano acknowledged that her elections team is lean: "We've got a small elections team — only about 15 people, including our loyal temps," she said at the time, referring to staff preparing for the 13-day mail ballot deadline that became law on January 1, 2026.

That new state law — which took effect this year — requires almost all mail ballots to be tabulated within 13 days of the election, though ballots needing a signature cure and provisional ballots are exempt from that deadline. The SLO County Elections Office's own canvass timeline set June 15 as the 13-day mail-ballot deadline and June 24 as the last day to cure signature issues — with full county certification due July 2.

More than 90% of SLO County voters choose to vote by mail, and the office noted that many cast their ballots just before or on Election Day — maximizing the post-election processing burden. Each mail ballot must be scanned, signature-verified, and processed before it can be counted; damaged or stained ballots must be duplicated under specific legal guidelines. Any ballot with an overvote, write-in, or stray marks must be reviewed by a two-person adjudication team to determine voter intent. Staff were processing roughly 5,000 ballots a day as of early June, the office said.

Cano had flagged the challenge as far back as December 2025, warning that while the county voluntarily met the 13-day mail-ballot timeline during the November 2025 special election, "it will be harder with more contests on the ballot during the 2026 primary and general elections." She also pointed to the volume of provisional ballots from Cal Poly students as a recurring strain, since each one requires confirmation of voter registration and, in most cases, duplication by a three-person team.

Close Races Make Every Ballot Count

The slow count is not merely an administrative footnote — it has real stakes for SLO County voters whose local races remain unresolved. In the June 2 primary, several Board of Supervisors contests were closely contested, with New Times SLO reporting that at least two supervisorial races were too close to call in the days following election night. Those margins underscore why the final ballots matter: in 2018, the District 4 supervisorial race was ultimately decided by just 60 votes.

The California Secretary of State's office has emphasized that county officials have up to 30 days after Election Day to complete what is known as the official canvass — a period that encompasses tallying, auditing, and certification. County elections offices must report final results to the Secretary of State by July 3, 2026, with statewide certification set for July 10, 2026.

What Comes Next

For SLO residents still waiting on results, the office's published milestones show that June 24 is the last day voters can cure signature issues, with the county's full certification deadline falling on July 2. Residents who were contacted about a signature mismatch can submit a signature verification statement at slovote.gov/june2026.

The counting process and all adjudication activity are publicly observable at the Elections Center in downtown San Luis Obispo — a transparency measure Cano's office has consistently emphasized.

Looking ahead to November, the office has said it is moving to electronic pollbooks, which should reduce the number of provisional ballots that must be manually processed after Election Day, since e-pollbooks can confirm voter eligibility on the spot. Whether those improvements will be enough to keep SLO County off the bottom of California's ballot-counting rankings remains to be seen when the general election arrives in November.