Election results have officially been certified in Riverside County. The Registrar of Voters Office released the final numbers last night which showed a big increase in voters this year. NBC Palm Springs spoke to officials to find out how much of an increase and how votes go through a series of processes depending on how you vote.

One month after the election, the final results are now official in Riverside County, cutting close to the state’s deadline.

“In the state of California there is a 30 day period to certify and election, so the Riverside County Registrar of Voters Office was able to certify the election yesterday on December 3rd, which was our deadline,” said Brooke Federico, Riverside County Public Information Officer.

During that time several different processes take place to ensure every vote is counted correctly.

“First, ballots can continue to come into the registrar of voters office 17 days after the date of the election. That team gets together and reviews every single ballot selection to make sure that the vote-counting machines, 100% accurately counted each ballot,” explained Federico.

Finally, the signature verification process and a check on provision ballots cast on the day of the election.

“This could be, for example, somebody has just moved-in to riverside county and was registered to vote in another county previously, research has to go into that ballot to ensure that that voter did not vote in the other county,” added Federico.

One wrinkle in the process, a Covid-19 outbreak in the registrar’s office weeks after the election, which required dozens of employees to quarantine.

The outbreak wasn’t the only effect of the pandemic, increased early voting numbers led to a larger overall voter turnout this year.

“We had an 82% voter turnout, the last presidential election it was around 75% total voter turnout. because of the pandemic, we had a focus throughout the entire state of early voting options and we had really unprecedented levels of early voting,” said Federico.

Riverside County Certifies Election Results; Voter Turnout Increases