Donald Trump’s claims about a rigged election prompted San Francisco’s district attorney to call a news conference Tuesday to reassure voters.
San Francisco DA George Gascon and the city's Director of Elections John Arntz told the media voter fraud isn’t a problem, but investigators will be standing by on Election Night.
San Francisco has always had personnel available to investigate voter fraud claims, and it has never had a complaint that was sustained by their investigation, Gascon said. But the system is in place just in case.
"I think it’s important for the public to recognize that there’s a lot of rhetoric out there that is baseless, and our elections are clean both at the local and national level," Gascon said.
Arntz said sometimes voters will show up at the wrong polling place and are told they aren’t registered. In those instances, they can always vote provisionally. The provisional ballot is a regular ballot that is placed into a pink envelope with the voter's information outside. If it’s determined later that the voter is elegible to vote, then the ballot will be counted, Arntz said.
As of Tuesday, 100,000 returned ballots were being entered into the Elections Department database. When the polls close on Election Day, those ballots will be tabulated.
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Ballots that have been crossed out or marked in such a way that the machines can’t read them are being checked manually, Arntz said. Two-person teams determine the intent of the voter and enter the information into the system.
Voters can even watch the process on their computers; it’s being live-streamed through the Elections Department website.
Anyone who witnesses someone being harassed at a polling place or someone campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place or any other behavior that doesn’t look right, can call a hot line to the DA's office: 415 551-9507.
