Next Sonoma County election update expected Tuesday as several races still too close to call

The largest dump of updated Sonoma County election results since last week’s midterm election could come Tuesday.

Elections workers have verified signatures on about 40,000 uncounted ballots, which must now be extracted and scanned before being added to the tally of 113,955 votes reported in preliminary results as of Friday afternoon.

That would represent the biggest batch of votes processed and posted since election night and could help decide a handful of close local races that are still hanging in the balance.

In one of those races, Santa Rosa’s District 4 council seat, challenger Terry Sanders leads incumbent Victoria Fleming by just 67 votes among 6,994 counted so far in the four-way race.

Deva Proto, Sonoma County’s elections chief, said her office worked over the weekend to prep ballots for processing and check signatures.

The actual size of Tuesday’s update will depend on how many ballots staff can finish processing, she said.

Once workers verify the signature on mail ballots, they must sort the ballots, slice envelopes, extract the ballots and unfold them before they are scanned and counted, a process Proto has said is time consuming.

The additional 40,000 ballots, which includes mail ballots received prior to Election Day, would put turnout at about 50%.

Ballots dropped off on Election Day and others postmarked by Election Day and received through the mail by Tuesday will be added as the count progresses over this week and next.

Proto has projected turnout could surpass 70%, which would mean an additional 59,000 ballots could remain after Tuesday’s update. There are 304,066 registered voters in Sonoma County.

Proto said her office will update preliminary results on Tuesdays and Fridays until all outstanding ballots are counted.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.