With hours left before polls close, Merced County officials seeing ‘steady stream’ of voters

Tuesday’s General Election so far has been proceeding as planned, according to the Merced County Registrar of Voters Office.

Merced County Registrar of Voters Darlene Ingersoll says there has been a steady stream of people dropping off ballots and voting in-person at the voting centers located throughout Merced County.

“It’s going well,” Ingersoll said. “It’s been steady all day and we’ve had no major issues. We expect it to really pick up between 5 and 8 p.m.”

The county elections department received 24,527 mail-in ballots as of Monday, according to Ingersoll. So far, 2,381 people have voted in person Tuesday. “I think everything is going as expected,” Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll also says there have been no issues so far with the corrected ballots.

County officials became aware of issues existing with some ballots mailed out for the 2022 election last month. Precinct issues associated with the redistricting process resulted in some ballots containing incorrect local races.

Corrected ballots were mailed on Oct. 17 to affected voters — those corrected ballots are marked with a “#2” located on the outside of the Vote-By-Mail envelope.

The ballot issues led to concerns and protests by some Merced County candidates and residents, who felt the mistakes would affect the integrity of the elections.

Voting centers will be open until 8 p.m. For more information visit www.countyofmerced.com