An unspecified number of employees from the Riverside County Office of the Registrar of Voters tested positive for COVID-19, and as a precaution, dozens of staffers were asked to self-quarantine — but the action is not expected to hamper the vote count, officials said Wednesday.

“It is key to our election process to ensure Registrar of Voters employees are safe and healthy,” Registrar Rebecca Spencer said. “I fully expect that we will be able to certify the election by Dec. 3, and today’s testing will help the office to meet the state’s deadline.”

A sanitization and disinfection process has been initiated to remove potential virus hazards in the Gateway Drive headquarters, according to officials.

The exact number of individuals who showed COVID-positive results was not specified, nor was there any word about the transmission source, or whether the employees were all temporary or permanent staff.

The entire office staff was tested after the results were returned on the infected parties and “dozens of employees” were asked to quarantine as a precaution, according to the Executive Office.

Roughly 4,000 provisional ballots still need to be vetted, and a manual audit on 1% of ballots is pending, according to Spencer.

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