The Butte County Elections Division won’t be permitted to make the Presidential Election results official until Dec. 3.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3184 into law on Sept. 22. The Butte County Clerk-Recorder, Keaton Delay, is disappointed with the passing of the bill, as stated in a press release.

The bill was authored by assemblymember Marc Berman and will change existing state election procedures by requiring all counties in California to wait 28 days before certifying their presidential general election results.  

The County Clerk-Recorder, as the Chief Election Official/Registrar of Voters, administers all federal, state, county, city, school and special district elections, as stated on their website. 

The Butte County Elections Division said they aim to provide secure and fast elections managed by voter role maintenance, signature verification, ballot tracking tools for voters, paper ballots, logic and accuracy testing and manual audits. 

The Butte County Elections Division election certification process also has a period of time built in to allow voters who forgot to sign their ballot envelopes or whose signatures don’t match to correct their errors. 

“With all these steps, certification used to be able to be completed, under California law, at the earliest, by Thanksgiving, or 17 days after the election,” the press release stated. 

The new bill will now require the elections official to include a “single, combined vote by mail ballot signature verification statement” and an unsigned ballot identification envelope statement. 

The Butte County Elections Division won’t be permitted to make the Presidential Election results official until Dec. 3. 

“Even with this new law, we remain dedicated to providing the best voting experience for our voters and will continue to conduct our election canvas in a timely manner,” the press release stated. “We understand and share the frustration this will bring our voters.” 

Bea Williams can be reached at [email protected].