Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
John Arntz, Director
For Immediate Release
SAN FRANCISCO, Thursday, November 14, 2024 – On November 19, 10 a.m., the San Francisco Department of Elections will select 1% of the ballots cast in the in the November 5, 2024, Consolidated General Election to manually tally as part of the post-election canvass of election materials. The selection will occur in the Department’s office in City Hall Room 48. The Department will randomly select ballots for manual tally using 10-sided dice.
Members of the public can participate and observe the selection process in-person. The selection process will be live streamed on the Department’s website and a recording of the process will also be posted on the Department’s website. Visit sfelections.org/observe to access the live stream and view the recording.
With 501 polling places in the November 2024 election, the Department must select at least five precincts to meet the 1% manually tally requirement. If the initial selection of five precincts does not include all of the contests voted upon in the election, additional rolls of the dice to select additional precincts will occur until all contests are included in the tally. Following the random selection of precincts, batches of vote-by-mail and provisional ballots that equals 1% of the batches processed will be selected using the dice.
Following the selection of polling place, vote-by-mail, and provisional ballots, Department personnel will prepare the ballots for tallying. On Thursday, November 21 at 8:30 a.m., Department personnel will begin the tallying at the Department’s warehouse on Pier 31. Counts from the manual tally will be compared to the vote totals generated by San Francisco’s voting system to verify that the equipment accurately tabulated ballots and reported vote totals. The manual tally will be open to public observation in person and via a live stream at sfelections.org/observe.
Any vote-by-mail or provisional ballots selected for tallying that have not already been transferred to the Department’s warehouse on Pier 31 for retention will be transported to the site and escorted by Sheriff’s deputies to provide security.
###
Department of Elections
City and County of San Francisco
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
City Hall, Room 48
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 554-4375
sfelections.gov