Whittier: Pre-Canvass: Counting of the Absentee and Questioned Ballots 2026

Hello and thank you for joining us for the counting of the absentee and question and special needs ballots. At this time, we will be opening— we will be determining whether the ballots are eligible to be counted and And then we will be opening them, adding them to— making a pile of them so that we can— oh my goodness— so that we can tally them. Goodness.

So before this meeting, the city clerk, myself, took the questioned ballot and absentee in-person ballot registers and compared them to our precinct register. For any that I could not find in the precinct register, I contacted the Division of Elections to confirm when a person was registered, whether a person was registered to vote, when they were registered to vote, and in which location they were registered to vote. So based on that information, we have the answers to our questioned ballots. Everyone who submitted an in-person absentee ballot was registered to vote in the City of Whittier prior to the deadline, which was September 6, 2026. Per Whittier Municipal Code, all voters to be eligible to vote must be registered in the City of Whittier, in the City of Whittier, by September 6th, 30 days prior to the general election.

So those are the requirements. And then we received zero by-mail absentee ballot applications and therefore sent out zero by-mail absentee ballots and received zero by-mail absentee ballots. And there were zero special needs ballots on Election Day or during the absentee in-person voting period, which occurred between September 21st at 8:00 AM and noon on October 5th, 2026, the day before elections. So that catches us up to where we are today. So Amy, my assistant here, is going to open the uncounted ballots.

Yep. Hold on one moment. Okay, so just to verify, how many red questioned ballots envelopes do we have? 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Okay, perfect.

Yep. And then, um, where did we set the other one, Peter? That will be for our hand count. Okay. So we'll go down the list of question ballots.

Okay. So they were in order. So if you want to put them in the— you got that. Okay. So the first one is Andrea Stewart.

I'm just putting them down. I mean, it's— Perfect. Yep. Okay. Andrea Stewart.

Was determined not to be eligible.

And a letter is sent to each voter who votes a question ballot and whose ballot is not counted will receive a letter in the mail explaining why they were not counted and how to fix it for the next election, if possible. Okay, so Andrea Stewart is not counted, so set that one aside. Lorena Calanche, is not registered, is not eligible, so that one will not be counted. Adrian Grant was not eligible and will not be counted. Eric Fleming was not eligible and will not be counted.

Mary Jane Nong— Nonook was not eligible and will not be counted. And Morgan Bender was not eligible was not counted. And again, each of these people will receive a letter in the mail from the city clerk's office explaining why they were not counted. And that concludes the questioned ballots.

So 6 were issued, but none were counted.

0 Returned unvoted by mail ballots. Okay, so then could you count how many absentee ballots we have? So these, again, these are absentee in-person. These are people who came between September 21st and October 5th to count, to vote in person at the city office. 10, 11.

11. Okay, perfect. That's how many we expected.

9, 10, 11. Yes.

Okay, so, um, sure, we can do that. So we will compare to the register just to be— just to double-check.

Okay, and then check the backside and make sure that each one is signed by the voter. So the first one— oh, will you put them in the reverse order? I'm sorry, they were in alphabetical.

Oh, perfect. Here you go.

Okay, correct. Yep, that's—. Yeah, or flip it over, we'll go that way. Yep. Okay, so the first one, will you read I'm going to put this closer to you.

Sure. Will you read the name and then I'll verify that they are listed on the precinct register? Sure. Aaron Bach.

Yes. And then just confirm that they— so then you can flip it over, confirm that they signed, and then we'll mark the count box. And Aaron Bach did sign the absentee ballot envelope. And then I— yep. Checkmarked in this.

Yeah, and then put that in one pile. And if any aren't, which we don't have— I don't expect any, but if any aren't, then we'll take them out, put them in the same pile as the not vote, not counted. And this is Shannon Dave Fort, Sharon Davenport. Oh, Davenport. Okay, and she is listed?

Yes, and she signed the back. Okay, you can mark that one as count. And then I have Arthur Dahlia, he signed the back. Yep, and he's listed, so that one can be counted.

Sorry, who is this? Peter Denmark, he is listed and he signed in the back. Okay, that one will be counted. Benjamin Derding, yes. Okay, he is listed.

Perfect. Sarah Derding. He— she signed also in the back, and she is listed on the register. Kirsten Ertinger, she is on the register. Perfect.

And then Nick Balzanac signed in the back, and he—. He's listed on the register.

We have Amy Pantaleon, and I signed in the back. That one will be counted.

And Monica Steffenberg. Yep, she is on the register. And she signed the back. Okay. And last one is Rachel Swain.

She signed the back. And she is listed on the register. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Amy. Okay, so at this point, we will open all the envelopes and we will put the— all the ballots are supposed to be inside of a gray secrecy sleeve.

So we will remove the ballots from the envelopes and then we will mix them up really well and then we will count them. Sure. Okay, so leave them in the secrecy sleeve for now, and then we'll shuffle them, and then we'll pull them out.

Yep. Oh, it's not in a sleeve, it's folded. It's folded with the answers on the inside, so we can still— we could do that actually. We could take them out of the gray secrecy sleeves too since they're folded inside. Yep, that way That way nobody can tell whose is whose.

And I probably shouldn't—. I smile. Sorry.

Oh, whoops. There you go. Okay, please.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Here, I'll take some of them.

There we go. Thank God. Okay, now we can unfold them and stack them now that they have been Thoroughly shuffled.

Okay, all right, um.

So do you mind tallying on here? Sure. While I'll read them, you tally. You just go ahead and do them in groups of 5. Okay.

All right, so the first ballot: seat E, Heather Brazelton. Seat F, blank. And then for blank, if you want to just put a mark below.

Yeah, thank you. Seat E, Heather Brazelton. Seat F, blank.

You got it. Seat E, Heather Brazelton. Seat F, blank.

Seat E, David Pincush. Seat F, Peter Denmark.

Seat E, David Pincush. Seat F, Peter Denmark.

Seat E, Heather Brazelton. Seat F, blank.

Seat E, Heather Brazelton. Hi, Cowley. Seat F, blank.

Seat E: Heather Brazelton. Seat F: Peter Denmark.

Yeah! Okay—. Seat E: Heather Brazelton; seat F: blank.

Seat E: Heather Brazelton; seat F: blank.

Seat E: Heather Brazelton; CF blank. Okay, so go ahead and tally, um, all of these and tally all of these. Sure. You just want me to add all of this, right? Yep.

Like, so total, so we can confirm that the number of ballots that we have matches the number of votes that we tallied.

Okay, I have 11, and then 9 and 2 is 11, and 3 and 8 is 11. Okay, so we've got— that's— that tally's right. So then do you want to read out the totals for each seat? And then you don't have to announce the blank. Sure.

Just that. So for Heather Grace Sultan, 9. David Pinkish, 2. Peter Denmark, 3. Perfect.

So this will be added to the unofficial results of the election. The postings will be posted on the notice boards where you normally find city announcements. It will be posted on our website and on the elections page. Or Elections Department, I suppose. And then it will also be posted on social media, on Facebook, on our— on the city's Facebook page.

So to find the current total number of ballots, those are the places that you can look. And then the City Council will meet for a special election to certify the results of the election on Tuesday, October 13th at 6 o'clock. At 7 o'clock PM, Tuesday, October 13th at 7 o'clock PM. If there is a— if anybody—. If any—.

Hold on, let me get this correct.

No, I don't have it written down.

Check the Whittier City Code or contact the City Clerk's Office if you would like to request a, or like to file a contest of election, I believe it's a certain number of any voters or a candidate in the election can bring a contest to, of the election, and that has to be brought to the City Council by their meeting on October 13th at 7:00 PM to qualify. And that concludes the counting of the absentee in-person, absentee by mail, questions, and special needs ballots. Thank you for joining us.