Machines delay Riverside County election results

Things are moving slow in Riverside, where there was another theft but fortunately not of the ballots as in Thermal California.

At times, one or two of the six ballot-counting machines in the Moreno Valley office broke down. At most times, one could not operate, delaying the final results. On average, officials were able to count about 15,000 ballots an hour.

The machines were expected to count about 400 ballots a minute. Since the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, they’ve averaged about 36 per minute.

At this pace, results could take till the end of the week — and that’s if officials and volunteers work nonstop.

“Once you start the count, it has to be continued (nonstop),” said Doug Kinzel, assistant registrar of voters.

Also in Riverside,

SAVE R VOTE, a countywide election watchdog group formed two years ago, reported a countywide shortage of Democratic ballots. In some cases, voters were given ballots printed in Spanish.