STOCKTON, Calif. — Poll workers at the Kennedy Community Center told the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Advisory Committee on Jan. 9 that Election Day was busy and uneven: staff described a broken ink cartridge, repeated scanner feed attempts, a high volume of new or provisional voters and an unexpected visit from two Department of Justice observers. County Registrar Olivia Hale presented countywide turnout numbers and operational findings and said the registrar’s office will make training and procedural changes before the next election.

Debbie Collins, an election officer at Kennedy Community Center, told the advisory committee she and other workers encountered a supply issue when an ink cartridge “exploded” while being installed and covered the machine and staff. “It went everywhere on the machine…my hands were completely ink,” Collins said. She described long lines after voters arrived from another site that had printing problems and said poll pads located many voters who said they thought they had never registered.

Collins also described a visit by two Department of Justice observers — one from California and one from Washington, D.C. — who questioned workers and, she said, spoke in Spanish with student workers who are minors. “They asked me a bunch of questions outside…then they moved forward to coming inside and then they did some questioning,” Collins said. Michael Collins, who accompanied her, said the observers were in and out for about 30–40 minutes.

Registrar Olivia Hale provided countywide data and an account of DOJ feedback during a broader briefing. Hale said turnout totaled 267,627 voters (about 70% turnout), including 83,100 voters who used a polling place in person — 48,900 ballots cast in person plus 34,200 voters who dropped off ballots at polling locations. Vote‑by‑mail returns totaled 216,794: 105,194 returned by mail, 76,722 via drop boxes, 678 handed in at the ROV office, and the remainder dropped off at polling places. Hale said Tracy City Hall was the heaviest drop‑box location, with 11,484 ballots.

Hale outlined election security practices: 25 drop boxes were live‑streamed 24/7; county sheriff’s deputies escorted final drop‑box pickups and transfers to receiving centers and the ROV warehouse; and the warehouse remained under camera surveillance while ballots were opened, sorted, scanned and tabulated.

On the DOJ visit, Hale said federal observers were reviewing compliance with federal laws on language access and disability access (ADA). She said the DOJ told county staff they visited 50 of the county’s 171 precincts and identified six sites where Spanish‑language assistance “was not as proficient as needed to communicate effectively.” Hale said the county provides translated ballot facsimiles in 10 languages at every polling place and will emphasize recruiting fully proficient bilingual workers for future elections.

Same‑day registration and processing burden: The registrar reported 9,000 conditional voter registrations (CVRs) received during the election; staff spent roughly two weeks handling CVR affidavits, a process Registrar Hale said consumed more post‑election time than processing the additional 120,000 vote‑by‑mail ballots. Processing CVRs took approximately 13 days; Hale said the office plans to introduce a carbon‑copy envelope to streamline how poll workers and the ROV process provisional and CVR paperwork after election day.

Voter‑roll maintenance: Hale described a local effort to reconcile death records with voter rolls by retrieving five years of death records from the county public health office and comparing them to the active voter roll. She said initial public reporting flagged about 3,800 registrations at business addresses; after removing canceled registrations and manually checking records with the assessor’s office, about 500 remained for review. The registrar’s office forwarded the results to the sheriff’s office for review where appropriate.

Operational issues and training: Poll workers and committee members raised hardware and training issues: scanner jams, the need for spare paper and ink, field inspectors’ response times and inconsistent practices about accepting an ID when a voter volunteers it. Hale said state law prevents poll workers from asking for ID but that if a voter voluntarily presents ID the worker may view it and return it to the voter. She described increased recruitment success: over 560 clerks, 354 student clerks, 170 inspectors and 53 field inspectors worked for the election.

Security and investigations: During questions, Hale confirmed the office referred 58 instances of duplicate or attempted duplicate voting to the sheriff’s office; she said those individuals were caught, one ballot per person was counted, and evidence was turned over to the sheriff. She said the ROV will provide updates to the committee when the sheriff’s office resolves investigations but noted investigations can take time and agencies may not release detailed findings while a case is open.

Next steps: The registrar said the office will reexamine accessibility at smaller polling locations to improve ADA compliance, strengthen language‑assistance staffing, refine training for new procedures such as scanning returned vote‑by‑mail ballots at polling places (the “sign, scan and go” option), and pursue procedural changes to reduce administrative burdens if the Legislature does not change related laws. Hale also noted pending legislative proposals in the packet that relate to tallying, reporting and processing vote‑by‑mail ballots and to voter‑ID proposals at the state level.