The San Benito County Elections Department has a philosophy to get as many of the qualified ballots counted on Election Night as possible. The Election Staff and volunteers work hard in the weeks leading up to and through Election Day to prepare and count as much as possible on Election Night.

Over 90% of San Benito County voters Vote-by-Mail. Many of the Vote-by-Mail ballots are dropped into drop boxes on Election Day. We do not have those ballots on site until well into the night on Election Day.  Every returned Vote-by-Mail ballot must be entered into the Election System, and have the voter’s signature verified.  At any point, ballots may be challenged.

If challenged, the San Benito County Department of Elections makes every effort to reach out to the voter to correct the issue.  Issues are often missing or non-matching signatures. 

Once processed and accepted, the ballot must be removed from its envelope and then reviewed for electronic readability, laid flat and readied for scanning.

This complete process can take several days and in some Elections even weeks. To see if your ballot has been counted, please visit WheresMyBallot. Please note, that if 'WheresMyBallot' does not show your ballot as counted, this may only mean that it has not been processed yet.

Additionally, there may be ballots which were voted provisionally at one of our Vote Centers. San Benito County has a historical record of accepting over 98% of all provisional ballots. These are the last ballots that we will work and process.

Lastly, once all of the processing above is complete, the ballots may be scanned and tabulated. Only then, will updated results be available. For the latest results, visit our Election Results page.

The Unprocessed Ballot Report will change over time, as qualified ballots arrive up to 7 days after Election Day, and as we work through processing and counting them.

Unprocessed Ballots for the November 5, 2024 Presidential General Election

Fourth Update: November 15, 2024