Alameda County Registrar of Voters Cynthia Cornejo is running her first major election, and she says her office will keep processing ballots through election night and add an extra results update in the second week, she told The Oaklandside.
Why it matters: Alameda County's registrar's office has faced years of criticism for slow counts and ranked-choice errors. Cornejo's plan is a test of whether the fixes hold in a busy midterm. She expects turnout comparable to November 2024.
Who she is
Cornejo was hired as a clerk in 1996 and became deputy registrar in 2007, Pleasanton Weekly reported. Supervisors named her interim registrar in March, when longtime registrar Tim Dupuis retired. Dupuis's tenure drew criticism over slow vote counts and a 2022 ranked-choice tabulation error in an Oakland school board race.
Cornejo told The Oaklandside she started as a temporary worker and "worked my way through the different positions." The registrar's and IT roles that Dupuis held together are now separate.
The counting plan
In the June primary, Cornejo said, her team did not stop processing on election night and was back processing ballots at 9 a.m. the next day. Results came out on election night, then on Friday, then the following Wednesday and Friday. This time she wants to add one more update in the second week. Processing is livestreamed.
Ballots went out Oct. 5. Twenty vote centers opened Oct. 24, and all 100 open Oct. 31. The county has 67 drop boxes, picked up throughout the day.
Federal pressure
Cornejo said threats from the Trump administration are "not a fear mechanism." Her office has met with law enforcement about vote center protocols, and she said recruiting poll workers has not been a problem. "If anything, it's probably driven people to want to help," she said. Voters can find locations at acvote.org.