Contra Costa County chooses to withhold critical election information from the public.

Elections are an integral part of any democracy.

While there is a lot of discussion around mail-in ballots or Voter ID, what I want to highlight is something more specific — a concern about the checks and balances on the counting process itself.

I visited the Contra Costa County offices multiple times and had direct conversations with staff about a gap I found troubling: the lack of precinct-level election data available to the public.

What Is Precinct-Level Data, and Why Does It Matter?

Photo Credit : Alameda County Election Results

Each voting area is divided into multiple precincts — in some countries they're called wards — each covering a smaller group of voters. This breakdown gives you a much deeper look at how a candidate or ballot measure performed across different neighborhoods and communities. It also serves as an important tool for independent checks and balances on election results.

Our Requests and What We Found

When we first requested precinct-level election results from Contra Costa County with the link to Alameda County's interactive election results map, the Assistant Registrar told us a "precinct-level report is not available.... We currently do not have same software capability (compared to Alameda)" And will send a copy of the full precinct-by-precinct results as soon as it is available once all ballots have been tabulated.

When we share the link to tracker.politicaldata.com where precinct level turnout is displayed. Official clarified that its only the turnout data but not results.

Later we came across the Santa Clara County Election site which publishes all the data.

What makes this explanation hard to accept is the following: both Contra Costa County and Santa Clara County publish their election results on nearly identical URL structures. Yet only one of them offers a precinct-level data download.

When we raised this during a follow-up call — including in an article we sent to them for review prior to publication — we were told that certain software features or modules may simply be unavailable or not yet enabled.

The Observer Problem

During that same conversation, something else came to light. We were told that if a member of the public completes a certified elections observer training, they would gain access rights similar to what was available to observers before 2007 — the year when a "fishbowl" style observation area was introduced. Since then, observers have been moved to a small enclosed space, away from the actual counting room, with no chairs and no ability to closely watch the tabulation or ballot separation processes.

Photo Credit : OpGov.News

Photo Credit : OpGov.News

The 1% Manual Count — June 15, 2026

On June 15th, 2026, I traveled to Martinez to observe the 1% manual counting process. County staff member Chris graciously walked me through the process and allowed me to observe over the shoulder — something I genuinely appreciated.

Feedback

If you are a community member with more information or input on this topic, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out directly at chirag@lead4earth.org.

Note : As a matter of transparency is concerned the email chain between the Assistant Registrar of CoCo County and Mr. Kathrani is attached.

Here is the response I received to my email from Deputy Clerk-Recorder, Contra Costa County